Enable breadcrumbs token at /includes/pageheader.html.twig

Committee Exposes China’s Funding of Adversaries and Cyber Against the West

Experts speaking before a Congressional committee warn of rising dangers from Beijing as a sponsor of cyber threats and dictatorships around the world.

Army Gen. Paul Nakasone, commander of U.S. Cyber Command, testified before the House Armed Services Committee in Washington in 2023. Credit: EJ Hersom, Department of Defense.

The U.S. House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) found growing dangers in Beijing’s indirect funding of the West’s adversaries as well as increased cyber activities during recent hearings.

At one of the events, outgoing Cyber Command Commander Gen. Paul Nakasone, USA, spoke about attempts by Beijing to access critical infrastructure networks and preposition capabilities to use at an opportunity of their convenience.

“This is an attempt to provide the Chinese options in a conflict. This is not an episodic threat that we are going to face. This is persistent. This is the generational piece. We have to have vigilance. We have to have offensive and defensive capabilities,” Gen. Nakasone told lawmakers.

Attacks have become more frequent and aggressive in the last two years, according to the testimony of Jen Easterly, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

During the hearing, officials identified the way China seeks to gain an advantage.

“The [U.S. intelligence community] has assessed that China is attempting to pre-position on U.S. critical Infrastructure, setting up back doors to cripple vital assets and systems in the event China invades Taiwan and therefore, limiting our ability to assist Taiwan,” said Christopher Wray, FBI director.

Many of the networks that provide essential services are privately owned and run, therefore, responsibilities are spread across many actors.

“One significant contribution in our ability to counter these threats is our relationship with the private sector,” Gen. Nakasone said, and explained how during the May 2023 attack called Volt Typhoon, 11 industry partners collaborated with Cyber Command and other agencies to counter the aggression.

Still, challenges remain.

“PRC actors are maintaining presence on victim organization networks by using advanced techniques that make finding and remediating such intrusions more challenging than with more commonly used tactics,” Easterly said.

Tech Sgt. Kyle Hanslovan, a cyber-warfare specialist with the Cyberspace Operations Group of the Maryland Air National Guard, is now as the CEO of a cyber security start up firm. Credit: J.M. Eddins Jr., U.S. Air Force.

Beyond the cyber domain, at a separate hearing former officials stressed the global reach of the CCP’s aggression against the U.S. and its allies, as adversarial nations and malicious actors find a sponsor of last resort, according to a former official.

“Regimes in Moscow, Tehran, Pyongyang, and Caracas all owe their continued existence to the Chinese Communist Party. And China is now watching how the West responds to conflicts around the world,” said Michael Pompeo, former secretary of state, at the hearing.

“If you want to know how Iran has the capacity to fund proxies across the Middle East, look no further than Beijing: Iran’s oil exports to China have tripled since 2020, and nearly all of its oil exports last year ended up in China. The Communist Party’s enrichment of the Ayatollah’s regime is a direct cause of the violence we are now seeing spread across the region,” Pompeo added.

During the hearing, chairman Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) stressed this was Gen. Nakasone’s final public appearance is head of Cyber Command and the National Security Agency.