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WSJ – In Secret Meeting, China Acknowledged Role in U.S. Infrastructure Hacks.

A senior Chinese official linked intrusions to escalating U.S. support for Taiwan.

https://archive.is/EmTpt#selection-2447.0-2451.81

WASHINGTON—Chinese officials acknowledged in a secret December meeting that Beijing was behind a widespread series of alarming cyberattacks on U.S. infrastructure, according to people familiar with the matter, underscoring how hostilities between the two superpowers are continuing to escalate.

The Chinese delegation linked years of intrusions into computer networks at U.S. ports, water utilities, airports and other targets, to increasing U.S. policy support for Taiwan, the people, who declined to be named, said.

The first-of-its-kind signal at a Geneva summit with the outgoing Biden administration startled American officials used to hearing their Chinese counterparts blame the campaign, which security researchers have dubbed Volt Typhoon, on a criminal outfit, or accuse the U.S. of having an overactive imagination.

U.S. officials went public last year with unusually dire warnings about the uncovered Volt Typhoon effort. They publicly attributed it to Beijing trying to get a foothold in U.S. computer networks so its army could quickly detonate damaging cyberattacks during a future conflict.

The Chinese official’s remarks at the December meeting were indirect and somewhat ambiguous, but most of the American delegation in the room interpreted it as a tacit admission and a warning to the U.S. about Taiwan, a former U.S. official familiar with the meeting said.

In the months since the meeting, relations between Washington and Beijing have sunk to new lows, locked in a historic trade war. Top Trump administration officials have said the Pentagon will pursue more offensive cyber strikes against China. Beijing has continued to mine its extraordinary access to U.S. telecommunications networks enabled by a separate breach, attributed to Salt Typhoon, U.S. officials and lawmakers say.

The administration also plans to dismiss hundreds of cybersecurity workers in sweeping job cuts and last week fired the director of the National Security Agency and his deputy, fanning concerns from some intelligence officials and lawmakers that the government would be weakened in defending against the attacks.

Officials say Chinese hackers’ targeting of civilian infrastructure in recent years presents among the most troubling security threats facing the Trump administration.

In a statement, the State Department didn’t comment on the meeting but said the U.S. had made clear to Beijing it will “take actions in response to Chinese malicious cyber activity,” describing the hacking as “some of the gravest and most persistent threats to U.S. national security.” The Trump White House National Security Council declined to comment.

The Chinese embassy in Washington didn’t respond to specific questions about the meeting, but accused the U.S. of “using cybersecurity to smear and slander China” and spreading disinformation about “so-called hacking threats.”

During the half-day meeting in Geneva, Wang Lei, a top cyber official with China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, indicated that the infrastructure hacks resulted from the U.S.’s military backing of Taiwan, an island Beijing claims as its own, according to current and former U.S. officials familiar with the conversation.

Wang or the other Chinese officials didn’t directly state that China was responsible for the hacking, the U.S. officials said. But American officials present and others later briefed on the meeting perceived the comments as confirmation of Beijing’s role and was intended to scare the U.S. from involving itself if a conflict erupts in the Taiwan Strait.

About a dozen representatives from both countries, including senior officials from the State Department, the National Security Council, the Pentagon and U.S. intelligence agencies, attended the high-level meeting, which hasn’t been previously reported. It was led by Nate Fick, then the ambassador-at-large for cyberspace and digital policy in the Biden administration, officials said.

In Geneva, Wang’s comments came after the U.S. stressed that China didn’t appear to understand how dangerous prepositioning in civilian critical infrastructure was, and how much the U.S. would view it as an act of war, the former U.S. official said. Additionally, the Biden administration wanted to convey doubts that China’s political and military leadership, including President Xi Jinping, were fully aware of the activities of the hackers, the official said.
Both the Biden White House and the Trump transition team were briefed about the meeting and provided detailed summaries afterward, the people said.

The Geneva summit occurred amid a cascade of revelations about the extent of China’s far-reaching and unusually aggressive Salt Typhoon cyber operations into U.S. telecommunications networks, including those belonging to AT&T and Verizon. That campaign allowed hackers working for China’s Ministry of State Security to spy on the unencrypted calls and texts of scores of top government officials and political figures, including those within the presidential campaigns of Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.
While that issue was also raised during the meeting in Geneva, it was largely tabled to focus on the separate hacking into civilian critical infrastructure by Volt Typhoon because it is considered an unacceptable provocation, the officials said. The telecom intrusions, while considered a historic counterintelligence failure, are viewed as more akin to traditional cyber espionage that the U.S. also conducts against adversaries.

A Chinese official would likely only acknowledge the intrusions even in a private setting if instructed to do so by the top levels of Xi’s government, said Dakota Cary, a China expert at the cybersecurity firm SentinelOne. The tacit admission is significant, he said, because it may reflect a view in Beijing that the likeliest military conflict with the U.S. would be over Taiwan and that a more direct signal about the stakes of involvement needed to be sent to the Trump administration.

“China wants U.S. officials to know that, yes, they do have this capability, and they are willing to use it,” Cary said.

Chiefio – Trump, Tariffs, and China, and Alex C. is Wrong.

https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2025/04/10/trump-tariffs-china-alex-c-is-wrong/

What is Trump doing with Tariffs? And why Alex C. is Wrong
Almost all the time The Duran and the 2 Alex’es are in touch with things. But at this moment, Alex Christoforou (and to some extent Alexander Mercouris) have it wrong on Trump & the Tariffs.

Their POV is that Trump is walking it back and has screwed up while his $Billionaire friends and associates are pressuring him and his gambit failed and… the whole “screw up emotional idiot” thesis.

As I see it, that is not at all what happened, and it isn’t at all about going after China as China.

I see this as an information gathering exercise AND a “motivate those who will be motivated” running the herd where you want them to go activity.

Think about it…

We had a system of all sorts of countries with tariff barriers against US goods and not very motivated to “negotiate” along with a few players who had strong merchantilist trade barriers (not just tariffs but “standards” that often were a bit bizarre and currency manipulation and more) and you want to both “condition the battle field” while you find out “how strong an opponent will each one be?”.

So Trump throws a Tariff Firebomb into Global Trade and watches who runs where. Who has strength and who is an easy play. And he gets his answers.

The 10% on everyone and for a few players with clear histories of abuse “reciprocal tariffs” sets off a fire storm. Markets go a bit nuts for a day or three. But what then?

Trump has a laundry list of about 90-ish countries who said, in essence, “Um, we’d be happy to negotiate a mutually beneficial arrangement with better terms for you than at present!”. And he has a list of a couple of countries who said, in essence: “We will fight you with all we have and crush you!”. So, OK, there’s a world of ships already on the seas full of stuff going everywhere who got a “Surprise!! Tariff!!”. That screws over a lot of Little People who really had no idea this would screw them over. And you have a couple of players who want to play hardball.

So Trump says “All you folks where your Country said ~let’s make a deal: “You folks are off the hook for 90 days while we two governments work out a deal that’s more fair”… then… For those countries, and especially the most aggressive being China, who said “We will fight you on the beaches, we will fight you on the oceans, we WILL Preserve our unfair trade advantage and asymmetrical tariff barriers!!!”: for them, Trump Responded: ~”Oh Yeah? OK. we now know where the battle will be, so for you, no quarter. We will now engage with all the force needed to get fair trade deals.”

This wasn’t any failure, and it isn’t a “back track” as it is only a 90 Day “Pause”. It was firing an opening salvo, and seeing where the enemy response came from. Who wanted to surrender, and who wanted to fight.

So now, for 90 days, The Little Guy who had stuff on ships at sea or about to enter a tariff assessment point; he gets a reprieve while his government has 3 months to “fix things” to the satisfaction of the Trump Government. For those places that said “Not only NO but HELL NO!!!” they are now clearly identified, and cannon can be trained on them as needed… Intel Gathered and shape of the battle field is now clear.

I’d count that as a “win” for shaping the battle field and choosing the grounds for the battle.

Clearly Trump has read his Tsun Su and his Clausewitz.

Unfortunately, the two Alex’es of The Duran interpret this through the lens of the Cover Story. The “top layer” of Trump just doing things for whatever reason and then walking them back when it blows up. Not thinking in terms of a feint to asses the engagement area, or a “first salvo” to see what the response will be; then a more strategic engagement.

They are usually more subtle and bright than that… I love most of their “stuff” and they generally are correct and accurate on Global Political things. Oh Well, nobody is perfect.

FWIW, here is Alex C. wandering around saying how much of a clueless idiot was Trump in all this.

So: No, Alex, this is not at all Regular Diplomacy with all the usual ass kissing and decorum and with careful consideration of “feelings” on all sides before proceeding with sane, rational, and limited goals.

This is a Get ‘Er Done NOW! frontal assault on 40 years of accumulated Crap up to and including election rigging and assassinations (or attempts of same that failed…) and all to be completed in 2 years. There WILL be dozens of eggs broken, hundreds of bit of Fine China in the China Shop trampled into fragments, and a LOT of casualties in the troops.

We, the MAGA folks, are JUST FINE with that. The faster the better.

Blow up the Federal Government, we can always start over. DESTROY “the Rules Based World Order” it wasn’t working all that well anyway what with “color revolutions” and “Faux Democracy” and all. SHUT DOWN trade with China if that’s what it takes, as long as it returns jobs and manufacturing to the USA. Throw Economic “Hand Grenades” if that’s what it takes. We’re here for you if you need us.

Unfortunately, to me, it looks like the UK and EU “leadership” are corrupt and “slimy weasels” in all this, leading their countries to ruin, and China are a bunch of CCP Liars & Cheats who can not be trusted. So Trump is pissing in their coffee? OK… Can I join in? 😉

We’ll know in 90 days if this works.

In the mean time: IF I can’t buy cheap Chinese plastic crap for 10 ¢ and have to pay 20 ¢ to get it from some other socialist hell hole, I really do not care. IF my neighbor gets a job at the new Plastic Crap Factory in the USA, well, we’ll have a back yard BBQ and I’ll buy the beer.

AND, if China INSISTS on banning USA made movies: Well, that’s a HUGE feature. Maybe Hollywood can get back to making movies that do not suck on Chinese “body parts” and / or “take it up the …” lying to make the CCP feel good. I’d been happy with a straight up pro-America movie that didn’t have to pass the CCP Political Officer Filter or hell, even said “Up Yours!” to them right out the gate.

FWIW: I have NOTHING against Chinese people, or their traditional culture. As I’ve said before: In high school I had a crush on The Chinese Girl who was born next to me in the same hospital all of 1 day apart. I “hit on her” after graduation but she was in love with another (though she did go as my ‘date’ for the 10 year high school reunion). I have a big issue with Communism (regardless of skin color) and all the bad it has brought to the world. So “China yes, CCP no”. Oh, and “Free Tibet” ought to be reminded. It is a glowing and ongoing testament to the value of UN Resolutions… /snark;