China building cyber weapons to attack enemy satellites, claims CIA document

A CIA document has revealed that China is developing advanced cyber weapons that will allow it to "seize control" of enemy satellites during conflicts.

The classified US documents have been reviewed by the Financial Times. The documents shared by a US Air Guardsman have been able to shed some light on how China intends to approach future wars.

It says that these weapons may render the satellites useless for data signals and surveillance during wartime. It claims that this is being done by China as a core part of its strategy. These will allow China to "seize control of a satellite, rendering it ineffective to support communications, weapons, or intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance systems."

This is not the first time that China has been accused of developing strategies related to cyber warfare.

In 2019, American cybersecurity and software firm Symantec Corporation said that China's intelligence agents are using malware and hacking technologies stolen from the National Security Agency (NSA) to launch cyberattacks on United States allies worldwide and private companies.

It added that China co-opted NSA hacking technology in 2016 to attack American allies and private firms in Europe and Asia. Symantec believes the Chinese obtained the code from an NSA attack on their own systems.

Earlier this year, the Indo-Pacific Centre for Strategic Communications (IPCSCIndo-Pacifi) reported that China has been conducting cyberattacks on allies and competitors. It added that groups linked to the Chinese government attacked at least six governments last year.

The United States sees cybersecurity as the number one threat to the stability of a country. It has often accused Beijing of cyberattacks against US firms and businesses.

A former Air Force general, Charlie Moore, who served as deputy commander of the US cyber command, has also made similar claims about China. He said that China is working to improve its space and cyber capabilities.

"China understands the superiority that the United States has in the space and cyber domains, so they are very interested in not only improving their own capabilities but in capitalising on what we refer to as a first-mover advantage in both domains," the Financial Times quoted Moore as saying.

In 2013, a major report into cyber espionage attacks against a range of companies in the US concluded that the Chinese government was behind the attacks. The US also accused China of attacking Microsoft's email software in 2021.

China has always denied these US allegations. It has, in fact, often accused the US of cyber espionage. It was once said that Washington was the "world champion" of cyber espionage. Last year, a report by its National Computer Virus Emergency Response Centre (CVERC) accused the US National Security Agency (NSA) of "tens of thousands of malicious attacks on network targets in China in recent years."

It accused the NSA of attacking Northwestern Polytechnical University in the city of Xi'an. According to an AFP report, the university specialises in aeronautical and space research and is funded by China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

China-based hackers have been suspected in several cyber espionage attacks on many countries over the years. Australian authorities had also accused China of similar attacks.

Australia's defence research division, the Defence Science Technology Group, Austrade, the Australian Trade Commission, and others were believed to have been targeted by China-based hackers in 2016, according to an ABC report.

Former CIA head Michael Hayden had then said that China's aim to target Australia appeared to be primarily focused on "the theft of information, and really by and large the theft of information for commercial profit," activities that he said go beyond acceptable state-on-state espionage.

A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Canberra dismissed the allegations that China had conducted cyberespionage operations against Australia as "totally groundless" and "false clichés." He added: "Like other countries, China suffers from serious cyberattacks and is one of the major victims of hacking attacks in the world."