As China continues its cyber assault on the U.S. federal government and its allies, and as the scope of attacks on critical infrastructure expands, the incoming Trump administration must drop President Joe Biden’s tolerance and make clear to China that the United States will hit back in the event of any such future hostilities.
It was revealed this week that hackers connected to Beijing recently breached information systems at the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, which is responsible for enforcing economic sanctions. Simultaneously, Taiwan’s government reported that Chinese cyberattacks on its government agencies doubled in 2024.
Chinese intrusion into telecom infrastructure lasted longer than a year and compromised a court-ordered surveillance system the authorities use to gather information on foreign targets in the U.S. This comes on top of the news that Chinese hackers can now shut down ports, power grids, water utilities, and oil pipelines.
Increased cyber aggression comes as Chinese Communist Party Leader Xi Jinping underlined his intention to use military force to annex Taiwan by 2027.
For our security, and the freedom and security of our allies, President-elect Donald Trump must take a harder line with China than Biden has. The National Security Agency should go on offense to counter Chinese cyber aggression, attacking Chinese servers and the hackers’ bank accounts and promising to retaliate if there is any enemy of disruption to public utilities or private institutions.
Trump should restart his China Initiative, created in his first term to identify spies who compromised American scientific and academic institutions. Biden closed this operation, asserting oddly that China did not deserve to be singled out for extra scrutiny. However, they certainly do. There is no larger or better funded hostile power, nor any with the same manpower and technical know-how to infiltrate our institutions, steal secrets, and disrupt our defenses. Undoing Biden’s folly on China should be a Day One agenda item for Trump.
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Finally, he must make it clear to allies that deterring Chinese aggression in the real and cyber worlds is a team sport and must take priority over other interests. This means no new trade deal with Britain absent a tougher stance on trade with China, particularly on electric vehicles. It means no meetings with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban until he rids his government and the country’s telecom industry of Chinese domination. It means threatening to move U.S. military bases out of Germany unless it spends more on defense and takes seriously the threat of Chinese manufacturing to its own economy.
Pretending we should work with China on climate change and other fanciful projects must end. Partnerships with China are one-sided, and cooperation is temporary, while Chinese theft of intellectual property is permanent. China must learn that its cyberattacks will backfire.
This article was originally published at www.washingtonexaminer.com
