Increasingly assertive Chinese external intelligence and destabilization operations

Chinese President Xi Jinping in Brasilia, November 20, 2024. EVARISTO SA / AFP The United States is still struggling to establish the extent to which Chinese hackers have infiltrated American mobile telephone networks, penetrating all operators. The American press uncovered this operation in September and reported in October that they had targeted the data of the numbers of Donald Trump and the man who would become his vice-president, JD Vance, also targeting members of the Democrat’s campaign. Kamala Harris. “This is by far the most serious telecoms hack in our history,” Mark Warner, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told the New York Times on Thursday, November 21. The affair illustrates a more assertive practice of Chinese actors in destabilization or intelligence operations, under the leadership of Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is pushing the country to assume its position as a great power. During the American presidential campaign, computer security experts also pointed out the role of another Chinese operation, nicknamed “Spamouflage”. It consisted of the activation of fake Facebook accounts and the dissemination of images and videos often created with artificial intelligence to accentuate divisions and support the idea of ​​an America on the brink of the abyss, condemned by fentanyl and gun violence. An operation which is reminiscent of Russia’s practices in the 2016 campaign. In Europe, all eyes are on a 225 meter long Chinese bulk carrier, the Yi-Peng 3, immobilized in the Baltic Sea and supervised by the Danish navy for being precisely above two submarine cables, one linking Sweden to Lithuania, the other central Europe to the Nordic countries, when they were damaged Sunday November 17 and Monday November 18. However, caution remains required, as the nationality of the ship’s captain in particular is not confirmed. “China has always fully fulfilled its obligations as a flag state and requires Chinese ships to strictly comply with applicable laws and regulations,” said Lin Jian, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry. . Read also | Article reserved for our subscribers In the affair of damaged submarine cables in the Baltic Sea, the noose tightens around the Chinese boat “Yi-Peng 3” Read later However, on October 8, 2023, a Chinese ship, the NewNew -Polar-Bear, had already damaged a gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia, and a parallel submarine telecommunications cable. He had left his anchor there. China admitted in August 2024 that the container ship had caused the damage, but maintained that it was an accident linked to bad weather. “If I were given a coin for every time a Chinese ship drags its anchor on the bottom of the Baltic Sea near important cables, I would already have two coins, it’s not much but it’s strange that it happens twice,” Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis wrote on the social network You have 54.17% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.



Source link