China offered on Tuesday to talk with the United States about cyber
security amid an escalating war of words between the two sides on
computer hacking, but suspicion is as deep in Beijing as it is in
Washington about the accusations and counter-accusations.
The world's
two leading economies have been squaring off for months over the issue
of cyber attacks, each accusing the other of hacking into sensitive
government and corporate websites.
A U.S. computer security
company said last month that a secretive Chinese military unit was
likely behind a series of hacking attacks mostly targeting the United
States.
On Monday, U.S. National Security Advisor Tom Donilon
called on China to acknowledge the scope of the problem and enter a
dialogue with the United States on ways to establish acceptable
behaviour.
China, in response, said it was happy to talk.
"China
is willing, on the basis of the principles of mutual respect and mutual
trust, to have constructive dialogue and cooperation on this issue with
the international community including the United States to maintain the
security, openness and peace of the Internet", Foreign Ministry
spokeswoman Hua Chuying said at a daily news briefing.
"Internet
security is a global issue. In fact, China is a marginalised group in
this regard, and one of the biggest victims of hacking attacks," she
added, echoing a common refrain from Chinese officials.
Two major
Chinese military websites, including that of the Defence Ministry, were
subject to more than 140,000 hacking attacks a month last year, almost
two-thirds from the United States, the ministry said last month.
Senior
People's Liberation Army officers interviewed at the ongoing annual
meeting of China's largely rubber-stamp parliament repeated government
denials of having anything to do with hacking.
"This talk from the
U.S. has no foundation whatsoever", said Maj. Gen. Liu Lianhua from the
Guangzhou Military District. "And what evidence is there? There isn't
any!"
Wang Hongguang, deputy commander of the PLA's Nanjing
Military District, called the United States "a thief calling others a
thief." But asked if China should develop its hacking capabilities for
counter-attacks, Wang said: "Personally, I think we will. If the enemy
has it we'll want to have it too. We must have the means at least to
defend ourselves."
U.S. officials say they expect hacking to be one of the thorniest issues between Washington and Beijing in the coming months.
Chinese
Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi on Saturday called cyberspace "a community
of common destiny," adding: "What cyberspace needs is not war, but
rules and cooperation.
"We oppose turning cyberspace into another
battlefield, or using the Internet as a new tool to interfere in other
countries' internal affairs," Yang said.
© Thomson Reuters 2013
