China accuses the US of starting an Internet war which caused the Arab uprisings

SugarHigh

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/china-claims-us-started-global-internet-war-after-google-attack/49930

This Gmail hacking scandal is continuing to blow up. China has not only refuted claims that it was responsible for the incident but now accuses the United States of starting a global “Internet war.”

On Wednesday, Google announced on its blog that hundreds of Gmail accounts, including those belonging to government officials in the U.S., South Korea and elsewhere, were hacked by an assault stemming from Jinan, China. However, no official government emails were compromised, and everyone affected by the attack has already been notified.

Neither Google nor the United States have accused the Chinese government of involvement, but both the White House and the Pentagon have investigated the matter. Additionally, the U.S. has asked China to help investigate the attack as well.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like there is going to be any teamwork on this issue. Yesterday, Chinese officials denounced swirling rumors that the Chinese government was associated in any way with the hacking, and now they’re going a step further.

According to the Associated Press:

Writing in the Communist Party-controlled China Youth Daily newspaper, the scholars did not mention Google’s claims, but said recent computer attacks and incidents employing the Internet to promote regime change in Arab nations appeared to have originated with the U.S. government.

“Of late, an Internet tornado has swept across the world … massively impacting and shocking the globe. Behind all this lies the shadow of America,” said the article, signed by Ye Zheng and Zhao Baoxian, identified as scholars with the Academy of Military Sciences.

“Faced with this warmup for an Internet war, every nation and military can’t be passive but is making preparations to fight the Internet war,” it said.

While I do think the US is obviously involved in many hacking operations I don't really think they started The Arab Spring. I don't see how the US benefits from no longer having Hosni Mubarak in charge. Maybe China is paranoid that the US will try and create an uprising in China using the Internet?

ChunkyLover_53

Will this affect my weekly delivery of a Trio with Chicken Balls?

ItsAWindUp

Would anyone be overly surprised if this turned out to be true?

SugarHigh

ItsAWindUp wrote: »

Would anyone be overly surprised if this turned out to be true?

Me. Well in relation to Egypt anyway. What motivation would they have to get rid of Mubarak when they already had complete control over him?

ItsAWindUp

SugarHigh wrote: »

Me. Well in relation to Egypt anyway. What motivation would they have to get rid of Mubarak when they already had complete control over him?

Perhaps they knew it would spread to the likes of Libya? I mean after all they've been looking for any excuse to get rid of Ghaddafi for decades.

neiphin

SugarHigh wrote: »

Me. Well in relation to Egypt anyway. What motivation would they have to get rid of Mubarak when they already had complete control over him?

ItsAWindUp wrote: »

Perhaps they knew it would spread to the likes of Libya? I mean after all they've been looking for any excuse to get rid of Ghaddafi for decades.

started in tunisia, police beating street traders

partyatmygaff

ItsAWindUp wrote: »

Perhaps they knew it would spread to the likes of Libya? I mean after all they've been looking for any excuse to get rid of Ghaddafi for decades.

They wouldn't have lost a friendly Egypt just to remove Gaddafi. He wasn't that important.

Lanaier

Typical Chinese argument formula:

"No YOU are!"

ItsAWindUp wrote: »

Would anyone be overly surprised if this turned out to be true?

Not at all, in this regard I'm sure they are just as bad as each other.
Whoever started it was simply first, the other side would have got round to it anyway.

Chuck Stone

The 'Arab Spring' came from the bottom up. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan came from the 'top' down and have been an abject failure

Manic Moran

Afghanistan's a bit of an odd one. The anti-Taliban forces had far less military support from the US than the Libyan rebels are getting right now from NATO and others, indicating quite a bit of bottom-up support but the Taliban were rooted from power far more quickly. The difference is that the Libyan government is more worried about territory, the Taliban were quite happy to fight away games.

NTM

cafecolour

I think the U.S. would love the credit for 'starting' the arab spring. However, I don't believe it.

cafecolour

I take that back. The did start the Arab spring:

U.S. housing bubble collapses, which leads to world economic downturn, which leads to high unemployment in many countries, including in the Arab world - which creates the conditions for the uprisings

Agent Smith

So...


I call General....

SugarHigh

Lanaier wrote: »

Typical Chinese argument formula:

"No YOU are!"





Not at all, in this regard I'm sure they are just as bad as each other.
Whoever started it was simply first, the other side would have got round to it anyway.

Can you blame the Chinese for being paranoid? I think a lot of people in the west are paranoid about China but tbh I think they are more justified in being paranoid about us(Mainly America).

Min

The Chinese just can't hack it.

They don't understand why the Taiwanese aren't protesting.

Einhard

ItsAWindUp wrote: »

Would anyone be overly surprised if this turned out to be true?

I would. It's hilarious that, no matter how extreme or unlikely a thing the US is accused of, as long as it's negative, you'll always have people willing to believe it.

I think, in relation to this, you should just apply your username to the Chinese announcement.

Lanaier

SugarHigh wrote: »

Can you blame the Chinese for being paranoid? I think a lot of people in the west are paranoid about China but tbh I think they are more justified in being paranoid about us(Mainly America).

Not at all, I think both sides are justified in being paranoid.

Einhard wrote: »

I would. It's hilarious that, no matter how extreme or unlikely a thing the US is accused of, as long as it's negative, you'll always have people willing to believe it.

I think, in relation to this, you should just apply your username to the Chinese announcement.

I don't understand how this seems unlikely.
I would assume it's a given that any country capable of spying in this manner will, especially since it is hard for anyone to prove that you did it to the international community even if you get caught.

I don't get the username comment.

Freddie59

"Ye Zheng and Zhao Baoxian, identified as scholars":rolleyes:

Freddie59

SugarHigh wrote: »

Can you blame the Chinese for being paranoid? I think a lot of people in the west are paranoid about China but tbh I think they are more justified in being paranoid about us(Mainly America).

Ah yeah. The chinese are whiter than white really. Completely misunderstood.....

Toby Take a Bow

The Americans were very muted on the whole Arab Spring. Lots of announcements denouncing 'violence' in any form, that kind of thing. They had to be careful what they called for, as they had Saudi Arabia to worry about. With regards to Egypt, they were supporting Mubarak until his position was untenable.

Gadaffi was an interesting one, though. He was the bogeyman of the west for years, but attempts to work with him (from Britain anyway) were being made in recent years. Until his attempted massacre at Benghazi, they may have seem him as better to work with than a bunch of largely unidentified rebels.

I don't see how America could have been involved. The possibility for it to spread to Saudi Arabia would be too great.