China’s UK Hacking Hardens Cold War Battle Lines
Cyberattacks by Beijing complicate a deep economic relationship.
Conservative MP Tim Loughton, former Conservative leader, Iain Duncan Smith and SNP's former defense spokesman Stewart McDonald from the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, hold a press conference in London on March 25, 2024.
Photographer: DANIEL LEAL/AFPAs Cold War cliffhangers go, the unmasking of China as the party responsible for hacking the UK’s Electoral Commission isn’t much of a reveal. The list of countries with a history of state-sponsored cyber intrusions and an interest in undermining liberal democracies is a short one. Russia, which has displayed undisguised hostility to the West since invading Ukraine more than two years ago, ticks both boxes. Beijing’s attitude is more ambivalent; its behavior is no less threatening.
Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden’s statement Monday to the House of Commons was followed by similar announcements from the US, Australia and New Zealand — the latter of which also accused China of targeting its parliamentary network in 2021. It’s the second coordinated calling out of China’s intelligence-gathering activities in less than six months. In October, the heads of the security services of the four nations — plus Canada on that occasion — appeared together in Silicon Valley to warn of what FBI Director Christopher Wray called “unprecedented” spying by China.