China accuses US spy agency of Winter Games cyberattacks

Beijing is growing increasingly aggressive in pushing back against perceived efforts by the US to prevent China’s rise.

China accused the NSA of targeting the Asian Winter Games in Harbin in February. Photo: Hector Retamal/AFP/Getty Images

Chinese police issued wanted notices for three people they said engaged in cyberattacks against China on behalf of the US National Security Agency, a rare step by Beijing as hostilities between the superpowers escalate.

The accusations that the NSA targeted the Asian Winter Games held in the northeastern Chinese city of Harbin in February are part of efforts by Beijing to present China as a victim of US aggression alongside the Trump administration’s hefty tariffs against the country.

China’s official Xinhua News Agency, citing Chinese investigators, said the attackers used front organizations to buy IP addresses in different countries and anonymously rented servers in Europe and in Asia to conceal their origins.

Before the opening ceremony of the games—which was attended by Chinese leader Xi Jinping—Chinese authorities allege that the NSA targeted systems that contained the personal information of individuals associated with the event.

Chinese investigators said the NSA’s Tailored Access Operations office, which collects foreign intelligence through hacking, was behind the attacks. Xinhua didn’t provide details on how the investigators reached that conclusion.

It added that investigators also found evidence of involvement by the University of California and Virginia Tech, without providing details.

The NSA didn’t immediately provide comment, while the University of California and Virginia Tech didn’t respond to requests for comment.

The US and China are locked in an economic and strategic competition that has grown more fierce since President Trump took office. While the Trump administration has largely focused on raising tariffs against Chinese goods, officials in Beijing are growing increasingly aggressive in pushing back against perceived efforts by the US to prevent China’s rise.

“This move by Beijing should not be viewed as retaliation for tariffs specifically,” but rather as a response to what Chinese leaders see as increasingly aggressive US efforts to undercut Chinese interests, said Bethany Allen, head of China investigations and analysis at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, a think tank.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian. Picture: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China

At the same time, Washington has objected to what it says are increasingly brazen cyberattacks by China, including Beijing’s targeting of US infrastructure. Last year, senior officials in the Biden administration alleged China had sought a foothold in US networks responsible for everything from safe drinking water to aviation traffic, which they could use to inflict damaging cyberattacks in a potential future conflict between the countries, such as over Taiwan.

Chinese officials publicly deny involvement in the attacks against the US The Wall Street Journal reported this month that Chinese officials privately acknowledged in a December meeting with the US that Beijing was behind the attacks, a report China’s Foreign Ministry said was untrue.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said at a daily press briefing Tuesday that China has raised objections to US cyberattacks in meetings with the US. He said the alleged attacks on the Asian Winter Games were of a “particularly egregious nature.”

“We urge the US side to adopt a responsible attitude on cybersecurity issues, stop its cyberattacks against China, and cease its unwarranted smears and attacks on China,” Lin said.

While China has long accused the US of threatening its cybersecurity, rarely has it so directly taken aim at the NSA.

Earlier this month, a Chinese government report on the alleged attacks against the Asian Winter Games said more than 270,000 cyberattacks from abroad were detected from January 26 to February 14, including roughly 171,000 from the US

The naming of alleged operatives of the US agency follows a similar case in March, in which China’s Ministry of State Security released the names and photos of four men it said were working for Taiwan’s military to carry out cyberattacks and other activities.

Wall Street Journal