(Minghui.org) According to the Wall Street Journal, Swedish businessman Fredrik Bergman ran into a problem in China: Each time a particular client in Sweden tried to transfer files to his company’s office in China, their Internet connection was cut off for about an hour or so. After several weeks of experiencing multiple outages each day, he finally found why this was happening: The files included the name of the Swedish town of “Falun”.
It is believed that because the name of the town contained the word “Falun”, it triggered the filters China's online censors use to block discussions of Falun Gong, a cultivation practice banned by the Communist regime in China.
Mr. Bergman's firm, Diakrit, produces virtual tours and three-dimensional models for housing developers and has up to a thousand floor plans to deliver every day. "To have two or three breaks a day for a few weeks… was affecting us a lot," Mr. Bergman said. Once the files were renamed, the transfers went smoothly.
Recently, The Washington Post reported that the networks of almost all government organs in Washington, from congressional offices, federal agencies, think tanks, law firms, news organizations to human rights groups and embassies were penetrated by hackers from the Chinese Communist (CCP) regime. This once again triggered much attention from the media.
From censorship inside China to cyber-attacks on Western countries, the CCP regime not only aims to gain commercial and economic advantages, but its true motivation is to control public opinion both inside and outside of China.
By attacking truth-clarifying websites it seeks to cover up its crimes against humanity. For example, the CCP wants to obtain information about prominent figures by way of taking control of the networks of parliament offices or government agencies of Western countries such as the US, so that they can establish contact with these people. The underlying motive is to attempt to have these people turn a deaf ear to the persecution of Falun Gong.
The CCP imposes Internet censorship and attacks networks in order to cover up crimes against humanity
The CCP regime has all along covered up its crimes against humanity in the persecution of tens of millions of Falun Gong practitioners. The persecution was launched by the CCP’s former head, Jiang Zemin, and the crimes committed include unlawful arrests, over a hundred forms of torture, coercive brainwashing, abuse of psychiatric drugs and organ harvesting—not to mention the murder of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners.
The criminals are very clear that once their crimes are exposed in broad daylight on a large scale, they will perish. Therefore, they have used all the network media under their control to spread hatred against Falun Gong, and at the same time try their utmost to block facts about Falun Gong both inside and outside of China.
When Google entered the Chinese market in 2006, it was forced to sign an agreement to filter facts about Falun Gong.
The words “Falun Gong” have been the most strictly filtered on the CCP's entire Internet censorship list.
In 2010 before Google withdrew from China, it lifted the ban on certain sensitive words such as June 4th, democracy, Dalai Lama, etc., but they never removed their filter on the words “Falun Gong”.
In December the same year, Google declared that it could no longer tolerate the pressure from the CCP regime to filter browsing information and decided to withdraw from China.
According to an international social investigation, Google filtered 97% of the information about Falun Gong under the pressure of the CCP regime.
Since 1999 when the persecution of Falun Gong started, the words “Falun Gong” have become the most feared and sensitive for the Jiang Zemin clique. Except for the CCP's propaganda which attempts to demonize Falun Gong, people could not find any true information and facts about Falun Gong on Chinese websites.
In the “Military Technology” program shown on CCTV-7 (Channel 7 of China Central Television) on July 17, 2011, a computer screen-shot was displayed, which showed the Internet attack system of the Electronic Engineering Institute of the People's Liberation Army (PLA). The target list was a table of Falun Gong websites, including “Falun Dafa in North America”, “Falun Dafa in Alabama”, “Falun Dafa website”, “Minghui website” ,“Falun Gong witness site (1)” and so on ( See Image 1)
Image 1
On another screen, the system was attacking the Minghui website and entered an IP address: 138.26.72.17 (See Image 2), which was used by a Falun Gong practitioner in America.
Image 2
During a Minghui interview, Falun Gong Association of Canada spokesperson Ms. Zhou Limin said that after the CCP launched its persecution of Falun Gong, her computer and other practitioners’ computers frequently experienced unusual problems. She said, “When Hu Jintao visited Canada last year, the computers of several invited guest speakers were attacked before a press conference. Some of them had viruses while others crashed ….”
Ms. Zhou Limin pointed out, “Since the persecution started in 1999, Falun Dafa websites outside of China have been frequently attacked by the CCP. The CCP uses state resources, and even military power, to attack Falun Dafa websites. This shows that the CCP is extremely afraid of Falun Gong. On the other hand, it has allowed the rest of the world to see the true nature of the CCP.”
The CCP uses state apparatus to expand Internet terrorism and their cyber-attacks have grown exponentially
Cyber-attacks by the CCP military have gone beyond Falun Gong websites. According to a report in The Washington Post on February 21, Mandiant, a US security company published a report detailing the Chinese military unit allegedly responsible for cyber-intrusions into 141 organizations in 20 industries in the US and around the world.
The report also said that the company obtained over 3,000 pieces of evidence and pointed to the most likely source, the Chinese military secret organization--61398 Unit-- as the hacker.
Since 2006, the 61398 Unit has undoubtedly stolen massive information from 150 US companies and government agencies. Based on estimates by external experts, the US economy has lost tens of billions of US dollars as a result of cyber-attacks by Chinese hackers.
“The Chinese government’s direct role in cybertheft is rampant, and the problems have grown exponentially,” said Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.
According to the report, almost all institutions in Washington DC have been penetrated by Chinese cyberspies, including congressional offices, federal agencies, think tanks, law firms, news organizations, human rights groups, contractors and embassies.
Experts say that the massive stolen data and information may offer insight to Chinese intelligence services eager to understand how Washington works.
“They’re trying to make connections between prominent people who work at think tanks, prominent donors that they’ve heard of and how the government makes decisions,” said Dan Blumenthal, director of Asian studies at the American Enterprise Institute, which also has been hacked. “It’s a sophisticated intelligence-gathering effort at trying to make human-network linkages of people in power, whether they be in Congress or the executive branch.”
In the last few years, Falun Gong practitioners in various countries noticed that some politicians in Western countries who used to openly support Falun Gong and human rights in China underwent a complete change of attitude after they were invited to China.
In 2010, Richard Fadden, head of Canadian Security Intelligence Service, openly exposed that Canadian politicians are being influenced by foreign governments, including China, and the Canadian community has been penetrated by propaganda from these countries.
In addition to the US, the CCP cyber-attacks and penetration have also occurred in Europe, Australia, Asia and other democratic countries.
The CCP has declared war on the civilized world with its cyber-attacks; however, the forces of justice will prevail.
Just as the CCP has extended the persecution of Falun Gong to the masses of people by controlling the political and judiciary system in China, in order to continue the persecution and cover up the facts, the CCP is using networks and media to extend the persecution to the world, attempting to influence Western countries to turn a blind eye to its crimes and human rights abuses.
Dean Chen, research fellow at the Heritage Foundation on Chinese Politics and Security Affairs published an article in which he confirmed the evidence provided by the computer security firm Mandiant and called upon the US government to deliver a strong response against China’s cyber-attacks.
The article says that the “Mandiant’s report confirms what has long been suspected around the world: Not only are there Chinese engaging in various cyber espionage and hacking activities, but many are acting at the direction and with the approval of the Chinese government.”
The article makes several suggestions as to how the US should respond to the CCP military cyber-attacks, including forging a multinational response among the major OECD countries, all of whom are being targeted by Chinese computer network operations. It suggests that the U.S. should be the lead force and take a tougher line on China.
In April 2011, a Canadian national TV station reported that Chinese hackers attacked computers not only in critical federal agencies, but also in the Canadian Parliament, targeting those members of parliament from districts with large numbers of Chinese constituents.
An insider indicated that The Communications Security Establishment of Canada traced hackers to the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa and servers in Beijing.
In the report, Toronto MP Derek Lee said Canada needs to show it’s capable of fighting back. “It’s unacceptable and I think we should hold out some threat – a counter-strike threat,” he said.
When they reach their extreme things turn around and have an opposite effect.
The CCP uses state apparatus to do evil around the world but as a result it will only bring destruction to itself. Countries, organizations and individuals who are the victims of the CCP's cyber-attacks will see the evil nature of the regime more clearly and will form an alliance against this evil.
Views expressed in this article represent the author's own opinions or understandings. All content published on this website are copyrighted by Minghui.org. Minghui will produce compilations of its online content regularly and on special occasions.
Category: Perspectives
