Chinese Nationalist Groups Are Launching Cyber-Attacks – Often Against the Wishes of the Government

In 2008, an informal group of hacktivists called the Red Hacker Alliance (中国红客联盟) attempted a denial-of-service attack against US media company CNN. The attack was in response to CNN’s reporting on anti-Beijing protests in Tibet, which has been occupied by China since 1950. It caused the company’s website to be briefly unavailable in some parts of Asia.

In another example, a group called the Honker Union (紅客) launched cyber-attacks against the Philippines in 2014. Triggered by the attempted arrest of Chinese fishermen in a disputed area of the South China Sea, the Honker Union hacked into the website of the University of the Philippines. Hackers posted pro-Chinese slogans and a map showing China’s territorial claims on the university’s homepage.

The CCP’s Societal Control
The CCP leans into nationalist sentiment to legitimize its regime, presenting itself as the vanguard of the Chinese nation. But this reliance on nationalism has given China’s nationalist movement considerable influence. The CCP cannot be seen to contradict its nationalist credentials by constraining nationalist activity too heavily.

As a result, cyber-nationalists have escaped the CCP’s societal controls, such as its ability to direct China’s nationalist movement through propaganda. In doing so, cyber-nationalists undermine the CCP’s authority and occasionally contradict its foreign policy.

In 2020, the CCP called for restraint among nationalist groups following foreign criticism of China’s crackdown on Hong Kong. However, cyber-nationalists still undertook an anti-foreign smear campaign on social media. Even the Communist Youth League, a nationalist organization with formal links to the CCP, took part against the CCP’s instruction.

As part of this campaign, hacktivists also launched cyber-attacks such as hijacking the Twitter account of the Chinese embassy in Paris. The hacktivists posted a picture of the US as the personification of death visiting Hong Kong.

The embassy quickly deleted the image and apologized to France and the US. But the incident speaks to a CCP that is struggling to control cyber-nationalists who are evading its societal controls and are willing to hijack state propaganda infrastructure to pursue their goals.

There have also been hacktivist cyber-attacks directed against the Chinese state, usually coinciding with periods of discontent with the CCP. In 2014, one group briefly seized control of a television network in the eastern city of Wenzhou and broadcast nationalistic and anti-CCP messages. This cyber-attack was made in protest of the detention of Wang Bingzhang, a nationalist activist and political dissident.

Another group hacked into a Shanghai police database in 2022, leaking 23 terabytes of personal information that the state had collected on the Chinese people as part of its program of mass domestic surveillance. The information was later made available for sale on online forums from an anonymous hacker referred to as “ChinaDan”.

In the west, we assume that Chinese cyber-attacks reflect a malicious Chinese state. The reality is more complex. As cyber-nationalists continue to take matters into their own hands, increasing numbers of cyber-attacks also reflects a major domestic problem for the CCP – one that showcases the limits of its societal controls.

Lewis Eves is Teaching Associate in Politics and International Relations, University of Sheffield. This article is published courtesy of The Conversation.