Feds Identify over 500 'Scientists of Concern' | China’s Military-Civil Fusion Program | China's Arctic Ambitions, and more

Suspected Chinese Hackers Spied on U.S., European Targets  (AP / Fox40)
Suspected state-backed Chinese hackers exploited widely used networking devices to spy for months on dozens of high-value government, defense industry and financial sector targets in the U.S. and Europe, according to FireEye, a prominent cybersecurity firm.
FireEye said Tuesday that it believes two hacking groups linked to China broke into several targets through Pulse Connect Secure devices, which numerous companies and governments use for secure remote access to their networks.

China-Linked Hackers Used VPN Flaw to Target U.S. Defense Industry -Researchers  (Christopher Bing and Raphael Satter, Reuters)
At least two groups of China-linked hackers have spent months using a previously undisclosed vulnerability in American virtual private networking devices to spy on the U.S. defense industry, researchers and the devices’ manufacturer said Tuesday.
Utah-based IT company Ivanti said in a statement the hackers took advantage of the flaw in its Pulse Connect Secure suite to break into the systems of “a very limited number of customers.”
Ivanti said that while mitigations were in place, a fix for the issue would be unavailable until early May.

Yes, the Atrocities in Xinjiang Constitute a Genocide  (Peter Mattis, Foreign Policy)
Beijing’s own words and actions highlight the intent to end the Uyghurs as a people.

House Republicans Raise Concerns about New Chinese Tech Companies  (Maggie Miller, The Hill)
Two leading Republicans on the House Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday raised concerns about security and privacy threats posed by emerging Chinese tech companies, specifically zeroing in on electronics group Xiaomi.
Committee ranking member John Katko (R-N.Y.) and Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.), the top Republican on the panel’s cybersecurity subcommittee, sent a letter to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas highlighting concerns over the increasing Chinese threats in the information technology space.

Northern Expedition: China’s Arctic Activities and Ambitions  (Rush Doshi, Alexis Dale-Huang, and Gaoqi Zhang, Brookings)
This report explores China’s internal discourse on the Arctic as well as its activities and ambitions across the region. It finds that China sometimes speaks with two voices on the Arctic: an external one aimed at foreign audiences and a more cynical internal one emphasizing competition and Beijing’s Arctic ambitions. In examining China’s political, military, scientific, and economic activity — as well as its coercion of Arctic states — the report also demonstrates the seriousness of China’s aspirations to become a “polar great power.” China has sent high-level figures to the region 33 times in the past two decades, engaged or joined most major Arctic institutions, sought a half dozen scientific facilities in Arctic states, pursued a range of plausibly dual-use economic projects, expanded its icebreaker fleet, and even sent its naval vessels into the region. The eight Arctic sovereign states — Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the United States — exercise great influence over the Arctic and its strategically valuable geography. China aspires to be among them.