This paper presents a comprehensive open source assessment of China’s capability to conduct computer network operations (CNO) both during peacetime and periods of conflict. The result will hopefully serve as useful reference to policymakers, China specialists, and information operations professionals.

Iranian scientists have submitted plans to start work on at least one new nuclear facility by September, a top official was quoted as saying Saturday, in a move that could inflame tensions with the West. Ali Akbar Salehi, who oversees Iran’s complex of nuclear installations, told the semiofficial Iranian Labor News Agency that his Atomic Energy Organization has taken steps to commission “one or two” new sites pending the approval of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He said the new installations were in line with a 2009 policy to expand the nation’s nuclear technology infrastructure. But he did not specify where the sites would be or whether they would be power reactors, uranium-enrichment plants or other types of facilities.

Senior Chinese military officers have proposed that their country boost defense spending, adjust PLA deployments, and possibly sell some U.S. bonds to punish Washington for its latest round of arms sales to Taiwan. The calls for broad retaliation over the planned U.S. weapons sales to the disputed island came from officers at China’s National Defence University and Academy of Military Sciences, interviewed by Outlook Weekly, a Chinese-language magazine published by the official Xinhua news agency. The interviews with Major Generals Zhu Chenghu and Luo Yuan and Senior Colonel Ke Chunqiao appeared in the issue published on Monday.

The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) plays no role in setting policy for China’s foreign exchange holdings. Officials in charge of that area have given no sign of any moves to sell U.S. Treasury bonds over the weapons sales, a move that could alarm markets and damage the value of China’s own holdings.

Google has turned to the National Security Agency for technical assistance to learn more about the computer network attackers who breached the company’s cybersecurity defenses last year, a person with direct knowledge of the agreement said Thursday. The collaboration between Google, the world’s largest search engine company, and the federal agency in charge of global electronic surveillance raises both civil liberties issues and new questions about how much Google knew about the electronic thefts it experienced when it stated last month that it might end its business operations in China, where it said the attacks originated. The agreement was first reported on Wednesday evening by The Washington Post.

Google threatened late Tuesday to pull out of its operations in China after it said it had uncovered a massive cyber attack on its computers that originated there. As a result, the company said, it would no longer agree to censor its search engine in China and may exit the country altogether. Google said that a primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human right activists, but that the attack also targeted 20 other large companies in the finance, technology, media and chemical sectors. In a blog posting by David Drummond, the corporate development and chief legal officer, Google said that it had found a “highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China.”

China “hijacked” the Copenhagen summit by blocking a legally-binding treaty, climate change secretary Ed Miliband said Monday. China vetoed attempts to give legal force to the accord reached at the United Nations climate summit in the Danish capital, Miliband wrote in The Guardian newspaper. It also blocked an agreement on reductions in global emissions, he said.

China’s foreign minister warned on Wednesday that there was a “looming danger” of an arms race in outer space, as he urged countries not to deploy missile defence systems that could undermine global security. “The practice of seeking absolute strategic advantage should be abandoned,” Yang Jiechi told the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva.

The Chinese state news agency reported Monday that at least 140 people were killed and 816 injured when rioters clashed with the police in a regional capital in westernChina after days of rising tensions between Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese. The casualty toll, if confirmed, would make this the deadliest outbreak of violence in China in many years.

Sweeping social and economic changes triggered by more than two decades of reform in China have led to equally sweeping changes in China’s vast, state-controlled media environment, particularly in the quantity and diversity of media sources and the development of the Internet. The Communist Party of China (CPC) not only tolerates much greater diversity in the media, but has strongly encouraged greater efforts to provide media content that resonates with the lives and interests of the population. Despite these changes, however, all pertinent information continues to be filtered through party censors to ensure that it is consistent with official policy. The party exercises especially tight control over the core mainstream media which deliver domestic and international news along with politically sensitive information. These media constitute the main vehicle for conveying the policy preferences and decisions of the central leadership.

China’s communist government, showing concern that mounting protests in Iran could spark another “color” revolution in a close economic ally, has called for the disputed election results to be recognized and cautioned the United States and other Western powers not to meddle in Iran’s affairs.

Hundreds of baton-wielding police on Sunday dispersed protesters and cordoned off a city hotel in central China after a young man’s mysterious death sparked unrest, a local official and a witness said. More than 200 people were injured in the clashes between police and residents outside the hotel in Hubei province’s Shishou city, according to a Hong Kong-based rights group, the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy.

By David Barboza
New York Times
June 1, 2009
BEIJING — In his first visit to China as Treasury secretary, Timothy F. Geithner seems to be offering a new approach to dealing with China.
With the global financial crisis reverberating, Mr. Geithner is quietly applauding Beijing’s efforts to stimulate its economy and stabilize global markets. He is also stressing [...]