Tag: China

Little evidence that China is seriously approaching its India talks with a sense of goodwill: US

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Washington: Reiterating that the United States supports a resolution of the Indo-China border dispute through a negotiated settlement and direct conversations between the two countries, Biden Administration’s point person for South and Central Asia on Thursday said the US sees little evidence that Beijing is seriously approaching these talks with a sense of goodwill.
“Our position on India’s border dispute with China is long-standing. We support a resolution of that border dispute through a negotiated settlement and through direct conversations between the two countries,” Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Donald Lu told PTI in an interview.
“Having said that, we see little evidence that the Chinese government is seriously approaching these talks with a sense of goodwill. What we see is the opposite. We see provocations that happen on the line of actual control on a pretty regular basis,” Lu said in response to a question.

India, the senior State Department official said, can count on the United States’ standing with India as it faces the challenge of its northern neighbour.
“We demonstrated that resolve in 2020 during the Galwan crisis, and we continue to find opportunities to cooperate with India on information but also on military equipment, exercises and that will go forward into the years ahead,” he said.
A top American think-tank Centre for a New American Security in a report last month said the increased prospect of India-China border hostility has implications for the United States and its Indo-Pacific strategy.
As the United States considers the role that India will play in the Indo-Pacific and how to maximise US-India cooperation to meet security challenges in the region, US policymakers must closely monitor and be prepared to respond quickly to future India-China border crisis, said the report authored by Lisa Curtis who served as deputy assistant to the president and NSC senior director for South and Central Asia from 2017 to 2021 and senior defence analyst Derek Grossman.
The report recommended the Biden Administration that to help deter and respond to further Chinese aggression along the border with India, the United States should elevate Indian territorial disputes with China on par with Beijing’s assertiveness against other US allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific and ensure this is reflected in all national security related documents and speeches.

“Offer India the sophisticated military technology it requires to defend its borders and initiate co-production and co-development of military equipment. Assist India in strengthening its maritime and naval capacity, and conduct joint intelligence reviews with India to align assessments of Chinese plans and intentions along the LAC and enhance coordination with Indian officials on contingency planning in the event of a future India-China conflict,” it said.
It urged the US to establish or support an official or unofficial organisation charged with collating unclassified commercial satellite imagery on the position of PLA troops along the LAC and disseminate these images routinely for public consumption. “Criticise Beijing’s efforts at land-grabbing in multilateral forums, including the UN, Shangri-La Dialogue, G20, and East Asia Summit.
Message Pakistan and enlist help from Islamabad’s other important partners to convey similar points about the need to stay neutral in the event of a potential future India-China border flare-up. And be prepared to extend full support to India, in the event of another border crisis or conflict,” recommended the think-tank in its report.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 21, 2023
India beats China in population; Hyderabad among 10 populous cities in the country

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Hyderabad: India has surpassed China to become the most populous country in the world. As per the latest United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) report, with a population of 1,428.6 million, India has overtaken China by a difference of 2.9 million.
The report states that 25 percent of India’s population is comprised of children aged 0-14, with 18 percent in the 10-19 age group, and 26 percent belonging to the 10-24 age group. Meanwhile, 68 percent are in the 15-64 age category and only 7 percent are above 65 years.
In contrast, China has 17 percent of the population under 14 years of age, with 12 percent in the 10-19 age group and 18 percent in the 10-24 age group.

Hyderabad among top 10 most populous cities in India
According to the latest Indian census, Mumbai is the most populous city in the country, followed by Delhi. Hyderabad is among the top 10 most populous cities in India.
Hyderabad has a population of 68 lakhs and it covers an area of 650 sq. km on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River. The city was established in 1591 by the Qutb Shahi dynasty’s Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah and served as the capital of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh from 1956 to 2014. Since 2014, Hyderabad has been the capital of Telangana state.
As per census data, 64.93 percent of Hyderabad’s population is Hindu, 30.13 percent are Muslim, 2.75 percent are Christian, and 2.19 percent belong to other religions.
China’s population decreased for the first time since 1960
For the first time, India has topped the UN’s list since it began collecting population data in 1950. The report also notes that China’s population decreased for the first time since 1960.
China had imposed a strict “one-child policy” in the 1980s to combat overpopulation fears, but lifted the policy in 2016. It began letting couples have three children in 2021 as the country’s workforce ages and fertility rates decline.

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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 20, 2023
India, US facing same security challenge from China, says US Indo Pacom Commander

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Washington: India and the United States are facing the same security challenges from China, a top American commander said here Wednesday, noting that the Biden Administration is not only providing assistance to New Delhi with cold weather gear, as it defends its border on the northern side, but also helping India in its effort to develop its own industrial base.
“We value our partnership with India, and we’ve been increasing it and doing a lot more, over time. They have the same security challenge, primary security challenger that we do, and it’s real on their northern border. Two skirmishes now in over the past nine or 10 months on that border, as they continue to get pressurised by the PRC for border gains,” Admiral John Christopher Aquilino, commander of US Indo-Pacific Command, told members of the House Armed Services Committee during a hearing on Indo-Pacific National Security Challenges.
Admiral Aquilino was responding to a question from Indian American Congressman Ro Khanna. “I would like you to reflect on the importance of the relationship — postcolonialism India and China had a relationship to emerge as the Asian voice. But that relationship now has really soured with a concern that there should not be a hegemon in Asia and that China is treating other countries as junior partners,” Khanna said.

“It seems to me that this gives us an opportunity to ensure that China doesn’t emerge as a hegemon to strengthen the relationship with India,” said the Indian American Congressman.
Aquillino said both India and the US have the same security challenges. “We also have the desire to operate together, based on the world’s largest democracy. We have common values, and we also have people, the people ties for a number of years. I met with General Chauhan, my counterpart, at the Raisina Dialogue not long ago. I’ve been to India five times now in the past two years.
“So, the importance of that relationship can’t be overstated. We operate together, frequently, with the Quad Nations. Again, the Quad is not a security agreement, it’s diplomatic and economic, but the Quad Nations come together, often, to operate together in multiple exercises. So, we continue to work to be interoperable and to expand the relationship,” he observed.
In response to another question from Congressman Patrick Ryan, the admiral said India is a critical partner and besides conducting joint war exercises in the Malabar, the US is providing assistance to India “as it applies to cold weather gear and other capabilities that they might need, as they defend their border on the northern side.”
“But additionally, we’re expanding our cooperation in the form of production as India tries to work to develop its own industrial base. So, C-130 critical components made in India, helicopter critical frameworks made in India. That is expanding the partnership and moving them towards self-sufficiency and increased partnership with the United States,” Aquilino added.

Referring to the recently launched India-US initiative for critical and emerging technology announced by the national security advisors of the two countries, Jedidiah P Royal, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security, said: “We’re already delivering offers under the context of the ISAT arrangement. This is a real moment of convergence for the United States and India and we’re looking to take full advantage of it, going forward.”
Testifying before the committee, Royal said: “India faces the same challenger that we face in the region. So what we’re seeing right now is a moment of strategic convergence in our relationship with the government of India. There’s a lot of momentum in that regard. With respect to your question on from whom do they buy their weapons, we believe that they are through a generational process of looking to diversify off of traditional suppliers.
“We want to make sure that the US defence industrial base is in the best position possible to be India’s partner of choice moving forward,” he said.
In response to another question, Aquilino said the US is working with our Indian partners both to advance their warfighting capabilities together to ensure that the US is sharing information that’s needed.
“We do have the same strategic competitor or whatever definition we want to put on it and in my time over in the theatre now for five years straight, it has increased exponentially. It’s trending in the right direction. They’re really good partners,” he said.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 20, 2023
White House nears unprecedented action on U.S. investment in China

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Biden’s economic team last week publicly took a less aggressive line as world economic policymakers convened in Washington for meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, where concern about China’s role as a leading global lender looms large. At the time, China released new customs data showing trade with the West — both the U.S. and Europe — dipped in the first quarter, fueling fears of economic slowdown and separation.
“It is important for the U.S. to be clear [that] we do not seek to decouple from China or seek to limit China’s growth in any way,” Jay Shambaugh, Treasury’s undersecretary for international affairs, said during a discussion at the Brookings Institution last week. Though the U.S. will sometimes “take targeted national security actions” aimed at Chinese firms, like last year’s trade rules targeting Chinese microchip makers, those policies are “not things we’re doing to benefit the U.S. economically vis-a-vis China.”
The comments were just some of the latest from Biden’s team, which has emphasized for months that they are not interested in a major decoupling of the world’s biggest economies. But despite the conciliatory tone, the U.S. is preparing a series of actions targeting critical parts of the Chinese economy. In addition to the expected executive order on investments, it is also considering a potential ban on the widely popular Chinese-owned app TikTok. And a senior trade official said last week that the U.S. could also hike tariffs on China to express its “displeasure” with Beijing’s failure to live up to its so-called Phase One trade deal, signed under then-President Donald Trump.
Those moves would come on the heels of aggressive trade action last year, when the administration put in place new export rules that explicitly sought to undermine Beijing’s prized microchip sector and passed massive industrial policies aimed at breaking reliance on the Chinese economy. At the time, national security adviser Jake Sullivan was clear that the goal of the strategy was to preserve America’s competitive edge in emerging high-tech industries, even if Washington does not pursue a broader decoupling.
“We must maintain as large of a lead as possible” in high tech sectors like microchips, Sullivan said, previewing new Commerce Department rules released in October that sought to grind Chinese chip development to a halt.
The administration insists that its economic, diplomatic and security leaders are united on China and that recent statements do not represent a shift in rhetoric or policy. But they also acknowledge that policy discussions continue over the scope of the executive order to regulate U.S. investment and other initiatives.
“We want to make sure we’re getting it right,” a senior administration official, granted anonymity to discuss policy discussions, said of the long-delayed executive order on American investments in China. “We want to make sure we’re consulting with allies, consulting with industry along the way, and then go through the regular order processes as regulations do. But I don’t think there’s really been any shift in any of those discussions now.”
Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s meeting last November on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Bali marked a turning point in the tone from both sides. At the time, the two leaders pledged to put a “floor” on the souring relationship after the U.S. chip rules and then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan brought the diplomatic relationship to a low not seen in decades.

The detente was supposed to be marked by the first trips to China for key members of Biden’s foreign policy and economic teams — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Secretary of State Antony Blinken. But the road to rapprochement hit a series of speed bumps.
In February, a suspected Chinese spy balloon floated over the continental U.S., igniting a firestorm of criticism from Capitol Hill and the White House. Yellen and Blinken’s trips were subsequently postponed, and the Biden administration sanctioned Chinese firms connected to the balloon incident. The Chinese government’s economic overtures to American businesses and policymakers — ongoing since the Biden-Xi meeting — dried up as well.
But now it appears the Biden administration is eager to reopen the economic dialogue. Administration officials have tried in recent weeks to reschedule the Cabinet members’ trips to Beijing. Though they have so far been rebuffed, China watchers say Beijing is likely to come back to the table soon.
“Beijing policymakers definitely are eager to get the U.S. to loosen its restrictive policies on China trade and investment,” said Ho-fung Hung, a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies focused on China’s economy. “With the worsening unemployment problem, debt crisis, and the urgency of recovery from the Covid lockdown, Beijing is desperately looking for ways to jumpstart its economy, at least to make sure it won’t worsen.”
The desire to renew in-person dialogue has its limits. At the same time, the White House is also pushing ahead with the first wide-ranging government oversight of American business in China.
Since the Trump administration, national security lawmakers and Cabinet officials have sought to craft new rules to oversee — and potentially block — U.S. investments in Chinese tech sectors. The goal is to prevent American firms from funding or developing tech that can later be used by the Chinese military.
Biden’s executive order scrutinizing U.S. investment in China was originally expected to be finalized last year. But that action was delayed as NSC officials clashed with the Treasury Department over which Chinese sectors the new oversight should target — and whether the government should have the power to prevent American business deals in China, or merely oversee them.
That debate has spilled into the new year, further delaying the release of the executive order. POLITICO reported in February that the White House is planning to announce a scaled-back executive order focused on disclosure and transparency by the end of April. While policymakers last year considered including up to five major Chinese industries — microchips, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, biotechnology and clean energy — in the order, the biotech and clean energy sectors are now likely to be left out of the program.
Biden’s economic officials have briefed industry groups in Washington on the broad contours of the order in recent weeks, a senior administration official confirmed. While some aspects of that order are still being finalized, the official said that it would likely include at least some prohibitions on U.S. investments in Chinese tech in addition to notification requirements for new deals.
“When Congress got close to passing an outbound investment provision that would have rode along in the CHIPS bill, that [amendment] included only notification,” the official said. “We noted publicly at the time that we thought any kind of regime based on notification would need to be complemented by a narrow, but tailored, set of prohibitions as well. So nothing has really shifted since.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

April 18, 2023
Macron doubles down on French ‘independence’ amid pension reform crisis

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PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron drew a connection between his country’s pension reform and Europe’s independence from other countries, during a televised address Monday evening.
“We are a people who intend to control and choose our destiny, who do not want to depend on anyone, neither on the forces of speculation, nor on foreign powers, nor on wills other than our own, and we are right,” Macron said during the 15-minute speech.
The French head of state’s TV appearance was the first time he has addressed the nation since he signed his contentious pension reform — which raises the retirement age from 62 to 64 — into law amid a prolonged political and social crisis.
The president’s reference to independence from “foreign powers” echoed controversial comments he made earlier this month in an interview with POLITICO and French daily Les Echos. On his way back from China, the French president created a stir by saying Europe should avoid being the United States’ follower — including on the matter of Taiwan’s security.
“One cannot declare its independence: It is built through ambitions, efforts at the national and European level, in terms of knowledge, research, attractiveness, technology, industry, defense. And it is also financed collectively through work,” Macron said Monday.
European and French independence, he added, is what will “allow us to obtain more justice” and decrease inequalities.
The bill was greenlit by the country’s top constitutional court on Friday, crushing hopes of opposition parties and unions that the reform could still be stopped.
The French president, who faces the prospect of a gridlocked parliament, said his government would focus on labor, law and justice, and “progress” in the coming months, with Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne expected to present a more detailed roadmap next week.

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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )

April 17, 2023
EU turns to Elon Musk to replace stalled French rocket

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The European Commission wants to cut deals with private American space companies like Elon Musk’s SpaceX to launch cutting-edge European navigation satellites due to continued delays to Europe’s next generation Ariane rocket system.
In a draft request to EU countries seen by POLITICO, the Commission is planning to ask for a green light to negotiate “an ad-hoc security agreement” with the U.S. for its rocket companies to “exceptionally launch Galileo satellites.”
The Commission reckons only SpaceX’s Falcon 9 heavy launcher and United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan system are up to the job of sending the EU’s new geo-navigation Galileo satellites — which weigh around 700 kilograms each — into orbit.
Seeking U.S. help to keep its flagship space program running puts a dent in the EU’s idea of strategic autonomy. Galileo is a point of pride for the EU, as it seeks to become less dependent on other regions for critical infrastructure, services and technology — a quest strongly backed by Paris.
The EU is having to seek assistance to launch new versions of its navigation satellites because the Ariane 5 rocket, developed by France-based ArianeGroup and launched from France’s South American spaceport in French Guiana, is to be retired in the next months.
The deployment of its replacement, Ariane 6, has been delayed; the new system is currently expected to carry out a maiden launch at the end of this year, with full commercial deployment starting next year.
The alternative to the Ariane series would have been launching Galileo satellites with Russian-built Soyuz rockets, a version of which are also used at the French Guiana site. However, since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, two Galileo launches using Soyuz rockets have been cancelled, prompting the search for alternatives.
Galileo satellites beam highly accurate navigation and precise time data back to earth — and also provide a top secret encrypted service for use by government agencies. That means launches typically can only be carried out from EU territory under tight security rules.

“In view of the security sensitive information … included in Galileo satellites, an ad-hoc legally binding security agreement with [the] U.S. is necessary, in order to protect the integrity of the satellites and the Galileo constellation,” said part of a draft proposal from the Commission seen by POLITICO.
It will be up to EU countries to approve negotiations for an agreement, which would come under the umbrella of standing deals on the exchange of classified information, the proposal states.
Capacity to launch satellites and humans into space independently of other powers has been a key part of French efforts to develop the concept of strategic autonomy for Europe.
But the need to contract out launches of critical space infrastructure to private companies operating in the U.S. undermines the argument that Europe is able to manage its own alternative to the U.S. GPS, Russia’s Glonass and China’s BeiDou constellations.
“Analyses are … ongoing to ascertain whether or not launching with an alternative launch service provider would be feasible,” said Commission spokesperson Sonya Gospodinova, adding that no decision has yet been taken. Assessments are being made on technical compatibility, launch site security and cost, she said.
While SpaceX’s Falcon rocket is already operational, ULA only plans its first Vulcan mission in May.
The Paris-based European Space Agency, which isn’t an EU institution but helps manage Galileo and runs the French Guiana spaceport, had already been looking at alternative launch options for satellites.

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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )

April 17, 2023
China to quickly gain air superiority in Taiwan attack, US leaks warn

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London: China would probably establish air superiority very rapidly in any attack on Taiwan, according to leaked US intelligence assessments that raise disturbing questions about the self-ruled island’s military readiness, media reports said.
The documents emerged as G7 foreign ministers met to discuss a common China strategy and Beijing briefly halted flights over part of the East China Sea on Sunday.
The classified documents seen by the Washington Post reveal that Taiwan’s military leaders doubt their air defences can “accurately detect missile launches” and that only about half of the island’s aircraft are capable of effectively engaging the enemy.

The documents also said Taiwan feared moving its aircraft to shelters could take up to a week, leaving them vulnerable to missile strikes, and that China’s use of civilian ships for military purposes was hampering US intelligence’s ability to predict an invasion, The Guardian reported.
Pentagon analysts concluded China’s air force would find it far easier to establish early air superiority than Russia did in its invasion of Ukraine, it added.
China views Taiwan as part of its territory to be retaken one day, by force if necessary. Chinese President Xi Jinping has expanded and modernised the People’s Liberation Army and China’s armed forces are thought to be 14 times the size of Taiwan’s.
Taiwan’s Defence Ministry said in a statement to the Washington Post that it “respects outside opinions about its military preparedness” but its response to recent Chinese military exercises showed officers were “absolutely capable, determined and confident”.
Taiwan last week staged large-scale emergency response drills enacting scenarios including missile and chemical weapons attacks, after China held its latest military exercises around the island, 100 miles (160km) off the Chinese mainland.

Flights out of northern Taiwan were delayed on Sunday morning after China launched a satellite rocket that dropped debris into waters north of the capital, Taipei. Taiwan’s Defence Ministry said the incident posed no threat to “our nation’s territory”, The Guardian reported.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 16, 2023
India-US trade rose by 8% in 2022-23, fell 1.5% with China

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New Delhi: Bilateral trade between India and the US rose by almost 8 per cent to $128.55 billion in 2022-23, compared to $119.5 billion in 2021-22.
The growth in bilateral trade between the two countries is significant, considering the fact that in 2020-21, it was only $80.51 billion, according to Commerce Ministry data.
Exports to the US rose by 2.81 per cent to $78.31 billion in 2022-23 as against $76.18 billion in 2021-22, while imports grew by about 16 per cent to $50.24 billion.

At the same time, India’s bilateral trade with China fell by 1.5 per cent in 2022-23 to $114 billion, compared to $115 billion in 2021-22.
Exports to China fell by 28 per cent to $15.32 billion in 2022-23, while imports rose by 4 per cent to $98.51 billion in 2021-22.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 16, 2023
India-US trade rose by 8% in 2022-23, fell 1.5% with China

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New Delhi: Bilateral trade between India and the US rose by almost 8 per cent to $128.55 billion in 2022-23, compared to $119.5 billion in 2021-22.
The growth in bilateral trade between the two countries is significant, considering the fact that in 2020-21, it was only $80.51 billion, according to Commerce Ministry data.
Exports to the US rose by 2.81 per cent to $78.31 billion in 2022-23 as against $76.18 billion in 2021-22, while imports grew by about 16 per cent to $50.24 billion.

At the same time, India’s bilateral trade with China fell by 1.5 per cent in 2022-23 to $114 billion, compared to $115 billion in 2021-22.
Exports to China fell by 28 per cent to $15.32 billion in 2022-23, while imports rose by 4 per cent to $98.51 billion in 2021-22.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 16, 2023
What it will look like if China launches cyberattacks in the U.S.

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Top lawmakers, the U.S. intelligence community and cybersecurity officials have warned in recent weeks that if an invasion happens, China would likely try to hobble critical U.S. systems with cyberattacks on military transport systems like ports and railroads, or against key civilian services like water and electricity.
“If Xi Jinping moves on Taiwan, we should assume he’ll launch cyberattacks against the United States as part of the operation,” Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), chair of the House Select Committee on China, said in an emailed statement. “This would likely include attacks on our electrical grid, water systems and communications infrastructure — especially near key military installations.”
Chinese hackers could also attack the networks of companies that provide services to the military or to critical infrastructure operators, holding their systems hostage for ransom payments.
“If you get the right supply chain, it can have a lot of effects against a lot of targets,” said John Hultquist, head of Mandiant Intelligence Analysis at Google Cloud.
China is viewed as one of the most dangerous nations in cyberspace, and its cyber espionage operations are among some of the U.S. government’s top cyber-related investigations. FBI Director Christopher Wray said in 2020 that his agency opens a new investigation into a Chinese counterintelligence effort every 10 hours, and half of the FBI’s counterintelligence investigations are related to China. And the intelligence community’s threats assessments have long warned that China is “almost certainly capable” of launching disruptive and destructive cyberattacks.
But China hasn’t fully demonstrated its destructive cyber capabilities to the world when compared with Russia or Iran. That makes knowing exactly how they’d go about it more difficult.
“Those will be resilience tests for us,” Mark Montgomery, director of the Cyberspace Solarium Commission’s succeeding group CSC 2.0, said of the range of potential cyberstrikes from China.
Here are what a few of the most likely scenarios could look like.

Military and transportation networks
Military systems and transportation methods for troops and supplies to come to Taiwan’s aid are likely to be at the top of the list for Chinese hackers.
President Joe Biden has committed multiple times to sending U.S. troops to Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion, something China would want to stop. This could include targeting the networks of ports on the West Coast, airfields, and other transportation networks that move troops.
“If Beijing feared that a major conflict with the United States were imminent, it almost certainly would consider undertaking aggressive cyber operations against U.S. homeland critical infrastructure and military assets worldwide,” the U.S. intelligence community’s annual threats assessment, released in February, warned.
The report stressed that “such a strike would be designed to deter U.S. military action by impeding U.S. decision making, inducing societal panic and interfering with the deployment of U.S. forces.”
Interrupting operations at ports would be a top priority. Gallagher and Rep. Carlos Giménez (R-Fla.) recently visited the Port of Miami to highlight Chinese investment in U.S. ports infrastructure. This included noting that the vast majority of cargo cranes at ports come from one Chinese company.
The lawmakers alleged that China could shut down the cranes to delay aid to Taiwan. Republican leaders of the House Homeland Security Committee subsequently sent a letter to DHS asking about cyber vulnerabilities at maritime ports.
“If an adversary exploits the operational technology (OT) system of these cranes, port operations could completely shut down,” the lawmakers wrote.
When House Republicans ran through a Chinese invasion of Taiwan scenario at their policy retreat in Florida last month, cybersecurity quickly came up as an issue. One member, playing the role of the secretary of Homeland Security, was forced to pick between three options on how to best use limited U.S. cyber defense resources: Defend networks critical to military deployment, focus on protecting networks used for day-to-day life or fight a widespread Chinese disinformation campaign online. The member chose the military networks.
Montgomery, who helped run the program, said the scenario made clear that while the member’s decision to defend military networks helped the U.S. win the fight, “we have insufficient cyber and physical critical infrastructure protection capacity in the United States.”
Energy
Chinese hackers also would be likely to zero in on U.S. critical infrastructure in order to undermine Americans’ support for Taiwan.
This could include going after electricity operators and fuel suppliers. A 2021 ransomware attack on a major East Coast gasoline supplier temporarily caused widespread gas shortages and led to long lines at the pump, illustrating the societal disruption that a cyberattack can cause.
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Jen Easterly predicted in February that Chinese hackers could go after systems like gas pipelines, warning that this type of attack would try to divide Americans. Easterly, whose agency is charged with protecting U.S. critical infrastructure against cyber threats, said China would use cyberattacks against the U.S. to sow “panic and chaos.”
“I think they, in the event that they go after Taiwan, are going to want to make sure they affect the unity that has been forged between the U.S. and our international partners, the unity that has been forged within the U.S.,” Easterly said of Chinese hacking threats.
Water
The water sector, widely viewed as one of the most vulnerable areas for attack, could also come under threat from China. The potentially disastrous effects of a cyberattack on this sector were demonstrated in 2021, when an unidentified hacker gained access to networks at a water treatment center in Oldsmar, Fla., and tried — but failed — to poison the water supply.
The Biden administration has begun to address security vulnerabilities in the sector, but it may not be enough to counter threats from China, which has shown interest in hacking the water sector in recent years. This has included alleged targeting of a water district in Southern California, the nation’s largest water agency, through a widely-used vulnerability.
Making things worse is how under-resourced many water sector organizations are, with many smaller groups having neither the funding or personnel to respond to cyber threats. This is making the crucial sector a sitting duck for attacks.
Businesses and Financial Markets
In China’s history of hacking U.S. companies, it has often prioritized financial gain and stealing intellectual property. China will likely continue to pursue these goals in an invasion of Taiwan, and try to hit U.S. financial markets, both in a bid to undermine U.S. support for Taiwan, and to cause chaos.
In the scenario run through by House Republicans last month, the finance sector was the main casualty of focusing cyber warfighting capabilities on military mobilization instead of protecting civilian networks.
“A side effect will be that it impacts the resilience of your financial services,” Montgomery said.
Hits to the financial sector, along with any companies critical to getting troops mobilized, could also play into China’s bid to slow down military operations.
“The Department of Defense, for military mobilization purposes, relies on the national critical infrastructure, power, water, transportation, even financial services, so to the degree that the national critical infrastructure is not ready, the military will be hampered,” Montgomery said.
Preparations on the home front
Should China pursue any of these avenues for crippling the U.S., it may not have an easy fight.
While experts warn that the U.S. has more vulnerabilities than most nations due to the highly interconnected and online nature of most organizations, this does not mean that the U.S. is defenseless.
The U.S. is seen as one of the most advanced nations in cyberspace, though specifics of these abilities are closely guarded intelligence secrets. The U.S. military blocked the internet access of Russia’s top troll farm on the day of the 2018 midterm elections to stop the spread of disinformation. And more than a decade ago, U.S. and Israeli intelligence likely carried out a joint cyberattack on an Iranian nuclear enrichment site that set the Iranian nuclear program back.
“China has to worry about our capabilities, and they have to put it as part of their equation,” Senate Foreign Relations Chair Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) said. “Every action has a reaction.”
Congress has its eyes firmly on China this year, in particular Chinese cyber threats. Gallagher told reporters in February that the new House Select Committee on China will make identifying Chinese cyber threats linked to an invasion of Taiwan a high priority. He said that the House Armed Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Cyber, Innovative Technologies and Information Systems, which he chairs, will also look into this.
“Part of CITI’s role,” Gallagher said, “is to ensure the Department of Defense and the private sector are moving with a sense of urgency to harden this critical infrastructure before it’s too late.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

April 16, 2023