US so-called "Volt Typhoon" actually misinformation campaign to smear China

The so-called "Volt Typhoon" cyber threat narrative is a campaign of misinformation and public opinion manipulation by the United States to smear China, said network security experts.

The so-called "Volt Typhoon" was initiated at the beginning of 2023 or even earlier, with the aim to further consolidate and strengthen the network penetration capabilities of U.S. intelligence agencies, particularly by enhancing their ability to attack external targets and deter rivals, as well as their ability to monitor and control the domestic population, according to a report.

U.S. intelligence agencies have fabricated and hyped up "cyber threat from China" with an intention to push for the authorization of Section 702 of the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a law that allows warrant-less surveillance, and tout more budgets from the U.S. Congress, according to the findings.

In May 2023, the United States and its "Five Eyes" allies released an advisory, claiming that a hacker they labeled "Volt Typhoon" had launched espionage activities targeting U.S. key infrastructures and the organization was endorsed by the Chinese government.

In response, China's National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center and other technical teams launched a traceability analysis and issued an investigation report in April.

A new report by the team revealed that "Volt Typhoon" is a typical misinformation maneuvered by U.S. intelligence agencies and joined by anti-China U.S. politicians and cybersecurity authorities of the "Five Eyes" countries.

"The Section 702 allows American intelligence agencies and law enforcement agencies to ask network operators, such as Google, Apple and Microsoft, to provide them with all users' personal data unconditionally without a court warrant. For example, the famous PRISM Project exposed by Edward Snowden in 2013, which is a large-scale network monitoring plan. This act is also an important legal basis for American intelligence agencies and law enforcement agencies and the U.S. government to maintain their network hegemony," said Du Zhenhua, senior engineer at the National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center.

The plan consisted of three phases with clear objectives to push for the reauthorization of Section 702.

On April 19, the U.S. Senate approved the reauthorization with a vote of 60-34. This reauthorization extends the surveillance authority for two more years, allowing the U.S. government to continue collecting communications of non-Americans located outside the country without a warrant.

Data revealed that from May 2023 to January 2024, U.S. government-backed hacking organizations waged over 45 million cyber attacks — all authorized by Section 702 — against Chinese government entities, academies, scientific research institutions, enterprises and critical infrastructures.

Calling the U.S. government agencies the mastermind behind the "Volt Typhoon," the report described such a move as an inevitable product of the international hegemonism that the United States strives to maintain.

"We have summarized that they have three main purposes. The first is to continue to hold power and strive for its political interests and economic interests for interest groups. The second is to unjustly suppress certain Chinese enterprises under the pretext of national security, thereby forcing them to relinquish market share to American enterprises. The third is to smear and isolate China, and to politically and economically hinder its development," said Du.

The report said similar plans to "Volt Typhoon" will continue to be devised and implemented by the next U.S. government agencies. Under the control of U.S. intelligence agencies, American cybersecurity companies will fabricate more false narratives of "foreign government-sponsored cyber attacks," continually deceiving Congress into approving more budgets and increasing the debt burden on American taxpayers.

"In fact, the United States, whether it's the National Security Agency or the Central Intelligence Agency, possesses the most potent cyber attack capabilities among all the organizations we monitor. They have been attacking and infiltrating the networks of many countries, including China, for a long time. Therefore, publishing such a report (Volt Typhoon) is akin to providing justification for their reauthorization of Section 702 and supporting their conduct of cyber attacks on other countries," said Zhou Hongyi, CEO of the Internet security company Qihoo 360.

The report said Section 702 poses serious threats not only to Americans, but also to countries around the globe in terms of state sovereignty and individual privacy.

It called on governments and people around the world to firmly oppose and resist the U.S. act of making use of its advantage in cyber-technology to compromise other countries' sovereignty and the legitimate rights and interests of other peoples.

US so-called "Volt Typhoon" actually misinformation campaign to smear China

US so-called "Volt Typhoon" actually misinformation campaign to smear China

A freelance writer from Australia has decided to become a permanent resident in China after living and working in Guangdong for 20 years, during which he has cycled through the country to see a real China and has witnessed the significant changes in the country.

Jerry Grey, 66, made his home in Zhongshan City of south China's Guangdong Province in 2004. The night he arrived in the city, he realized he had been misinformed about China.

"This used to be a supermarket. And my first day here, it was very late at night, 11, 12 o'clock at night. I got out of the car and walked through the supermarket and saw all the things that I carried with me from Australia. I had new shampoos and body washes and razor blades, all the things that I was told online you can't get these things in China, so you better buy them before you go. So I bought them all in Australia and carried them all to China. And I was misinformed. I didn't need to buy any of these things at all, because they're all cheaper here as well. I had to pay excess baggage in the airline because I was carrying so much weight. So that was a very strange experience. I also bought two bottles of Australian wine. And I can buy that in the supermarket, too," Grey said.

While serving as an English teacher at a foreign language school in Zhongshan, Grey spent a lot of his spare time traveling across China and fell in love with the welcoming people, beautiful landscapes, local cuisines, and a Chinese woman, who became his wife in 2009.

In 2014, Grey made a "crazy" decision to travel to Xinjiang by bicycle with a photographer friend, who is also a foreign expatriate.

"We left Zhongshan, traveled north into Hunan, and then Hubei, and then turned slightly northwest through Shaanxi, and then into Gansu, Ningxia, and across to Xinjiang. So that was quite an extended ride. That was 5,000 kilometers," Grey said.

It took them 57 days to finish that trip and finally see the magnificent views around Tianshan Mountains in Xinjiang.

"And the idea is that we want to see China. One of the most incredible things about riding a bike is the authenticity of the country, the real part of China," Grey said.

Grey has published a picture album titled "57 Days across China" to keep his memories alive and show people what he had seen during the journey. The funds raised from sales of the books have been used to help the people with disabilities in Zhongshan.

Over the past decade, Grey has ridden 35,000 kilometers in China, and his wife Liang Yuhua joined him in 2019.

In doing so, they have raised significant sums of money for people with disabilities and witnessed impressive changes in villages, where wide roads, modern home-stay hotels and restaurants have become common features in the past few years.

"In 2019, I noticed the significant changes when riding with Jerry. Especially, some rural areas are so clean that we didn't see any garbage. And the waste classification bins were placed neatly. So I told Jerry, 'see how great the changes that have happened in China over the years'," Liang said.

After retirement, Grey became a freelance writer. He has been posting videos on social media about what he has seen in China, including the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Link and the Village Basketball Association, an amateur rural basketball event that has become a nationwide sports phenomenon.

In recent years, Grey is impressed by the increasingly easier life in China, even for foreign travelers.

"So foreigners can actually open bank accounts in China. They can use WeChat and Alipay very, very simply as long as they're prepared before they arrive. Chinese payments are as convenient as it is possible to be," Grey said.

A few days ago, Grey went to the immigration office of Zhongshan and applied for a foreign permanent resident ID card.

"I think the time is right. I've lived here for 20 years, but for most of that time, I lived here on working permits and residence visas. Then when I retired from work, I'm on a spousal visa. And I think the time is right, because it gives me the card that I can travel around China without carrying my passport. And it becomes much more convenient. It's going quite smoothly. At the moment, we're waiting for the police checks to come back," he said.

Australian expat sees real China on bicycle