The recent blitz of criticism from the United States, accusing China of threatening cyber security, concerns a number of issues.

The criticism mainly accuses China of stealing U.S. Federal Government Employee's personal information, and also attacking United Airlines' cyber system. Meanwhile, according to the exposure of a highly confidential document and words from a senior U.S. intelligence official, China is suspected of sneaking into the U.S. government's cyber space and prying into the personal emails of senior U.S. officials responsible for state security and trade issues.

These accusations have all been made characteristically: they are revealed from the U.S. government to the media or publicized directly by the federal government, unanimously targeting China without evidence to support their claims. These accusations are merely bold hypotheses lacking substantial proof. Therefore, these accusations are illogical and groundless.

Actually, the entire international community is aware of the multifaceted surveillance strategies conducted by the U.S. government both at home and abroad. Take overseas surveillance for example, the U.S. government spies on numerous countries, including its allies and neighbors, under the guise of anti-terrorism campaigns. According to Edward Snowden and Wikileaks, the whistleblowers which famously embarrassed the U.S. government, these surveillance strategies have affected many countries including Germany, Japan and Mexico. There is evidence showing that the U.S. government, which has conducted the long-term surveillance of these countries, is the world's premier and organized cyber hacking institution.

Facing overwhelming criticism from around the world, President Obama merely argued that the United States has only done exactly what all other countries have done, ignoring the fact that U.S. has the world's largest surveillance program. Its extensive surveillance does not only aim at important political figures but also corporations.

Without the evidence, the U.S. government has accused China of hacking the email accounts of their high-ranking officials. Nevertheless, they have sidestepped the issue concerning whether or not they, themselves, have ever hacked the email accounts of Chinese officials.

The endless rounds of overseas cyber hacker attacks have strengthened China's resolve to build a cyber force to defend the security of its own cyber space. While building a strong defence system, China has also held diplomatic and political dialogues with the U.S. And the Chinese high-ranking officials involved in the dialogue pointed out the grim challenges concerning the future of cyber space in the context of international relations, suggesting that a team composed of officials from both sides be set up to push forward cyber security cooperation.

The attack from the United States on China's cyber space is far from noble. Their accusations towards China are also groundless, based only on suspicion. In 1993, the United States rebuked China's shipment of raw chemical weapons to Iran, which was eventually proved to be only rumor. In 2003, intelligence agencies proposed that Iraq was producing weapons of mass destruction, which misguided the United States, pushing them into a war with Iraq.

In light of the common challenges posed by the cyber attacks of indeterminate origin, cooperation between China and the United States as well as the rest of the international community is needed urgently. Therefore, the United States, which initiated the cyber attacks, should cooperate with the rest of the world and treat each member equally for the sake of cyber space safety. They should stop making accusations towards China and hold serious dialogues with other countries for the resolutions of real problems.

The author is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:

http://www.keyanhelp.cn/opinion/shendingli.htm

The article was first published in Chinese and translated by Wu Jin.

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.

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