Opinion: US claim of 'Chinese hacker attacks' serves selfish interests

BEIJING - The recent claim of "Chinese hacker attacks" is yet another example of self-serving rhetoric by the US military and government going as far as being "creative."

By fabricating such "Chinese hacker threat" rhetoric under the "China threat" cliche, certain interest groups in the United States would stand to benefit in terms of the budget and to realize other ulterior motives.

In similar cases, the U.S. military has applied hyperbolic technique and freak mindset, which are typically seen in Hollywood movies. James D. Syring, director of the U.S. Defense Department's Missile Defense Agency (MDA), threw a shocking speech on Thursday in a House of Representatives hearing, claiming Chinese military hackers were conducting cyber attacks on the Pentagon's MDA network "every day."

It is not surprising that such groundless accusations have been repeated time and again by the U.S. government and military, particularly by those departments that depend on dealing with what they called threats for a living.

With such gimmick, certain politicians and parties could reap political gains, while the intelligence agencies and the military obtain new authorization or more budgets, and related contractors win large orders.

Examples abound. In 2013, for instance, some major U.S. media outlets, network security companies and politicians claimed one after another that the United States had been under Chinese hacker attacks. The truth behind the claim, it was later disclosed, was that the U.S. administration was preparing to make a new network security policy and to expand its cyber army by five times.

It is also absurd that Syring even made a prediction that the so-called Chinese cyber attacks would be targeting the defense contractors.

As a matter of fact, in the cyber space, China is a victim rather than a trouble maker. After all, it's the United States that has an overwhelming edge in Internet technology, with the world's biggest Internet intelligence agency and a first-rate cyber army.

The so-called cyber attacks claimed by the United States may well be a farce directed by the superpower itself.

Joris Evers, director of worldwide public relations at McAfee, a major player in computer security, has said, "In our Q4 Threat Report we noted that there are more 'zombie' computers in China than in any other nation, with 12 percent of all zombie computers located in China." Symantec Security Response also has said the United States is the base camp of hacker, while China is the biggest victim.

China is ready to work with other countries to respect sovereignty in cyber space, uphold cyber security, and jointly build a cyberspace of peace, security, openness and cooperation, as well as an international Internet governance system featuring multilateralism, democracy and transparency.

It is advisable for the United States to realistically stop its groundless accusation and malicious condemnation, and to make cyber security cooperation a new highlight of China-US cooperation as the two countries are making efforts to build a new type of major-country relations.