Chinese Hackers Branded as "Government Controlled Hacker Group" by the U.S.

Chinese Hackers Branded as "Government Controlled Hacker Group" by the U.S.

From the end of the 20th century to the beginning of the 21st century, U.S.-China relations were in a volatile period of inextricable cooperation and confrontation. The Taiwan Strait Crisis, tensions over the Taiwan presidential election, and the frequent cyberattacks that occurred in the early days of the Internet all came together, and the United States began to suspect that hacking activities by young Chinese were state-sponsored and controlled operational activities. The EP3 collision in 2001 sparked a sudden flare-up of anti-American sentiment on the Chinese Internet and the proliferation of retaliatory hacking, leading the U.S. side to increasingly regard Hongxia as an organization under the state or a cyberwarfare unit.

In reality, however, Hongya was not a government-led professional group, but rather a loose-knit community that emerged from Internet cafes and university terminal rooms. The ideology of its members was not unified, there was a mixture of patriotic rebellion and playful technological excitement, and there was no clear chain of command. The Chinese government itself had no control over them, and their actions tended to spread spontaneously, stimulated by social conditions.

Many researchers have pointed out that the U.S. image of a government-controlled hacker group was a frame created by geopolitical conflicts and political concerns, and was far removed from the actual situation. Ironically, however, this growing misunderstanding and U.S. caution encouraged the Chinese government to institutionalize cyberwarfare capabilities, and the spontaneous culture of Red China gradually disappeared. This period of distrust between the U.S. and China reached its peak, and it was against this backdrop that the narrative of Benghai as the shadow of the state was established.