The verbal warfare between China and Google (News 
- Alert) over cyber crime allegations went up a notch on Friday when two members of the Chinese military suggested that the U.S. is responsible for a burgeoning “Internet war,” according to the Associated Press (News - Alert).
The bad blood stems from reports that hackers in China were responsible for breaching hundreds of Gmail accounts, including those of U.S. government officials, Chinese political activists and local journalists. Google has since claimed that the attacks originated in the city of Jinan, which is the home of one of the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) regional commands and a military technical college. Google said that its systems were hacked by computers from the same region back in 2009.
China immediately denied responsibility for this week’s attack, just like it did 17 months ago. Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said that the allegations were baseless, and suggested that those who blamed China had “ulterior motives,” according to Voice of America News.
Two members of China’s Academy of Military Sciences – Ye Zheng and Zhao Baoxian – took things a step further on Friday, lashing out directly at the U.S.
“Of late, an Internet tornado has swept across the world ... massively impacting and shocking the globe. Behind all this lies the shadow of America,” the two wrote in an article published in the China Youth Daily, the Communist Party-controlled newspaper, according to the AP.
“Faced with this warm-up for an Internet war, every nation and military can’t be passive but is making preparations to fight the Internet war,” they added.
The article did not directly mention Google, but went on to say that China needs to protect its “Internet border.”
Friday’s article was one of many angry newspaper pieces, most of which were aimed at Google. The nationalist Global Times newspaper referred to Google as “snotty-nosed“ and resentful about its lack of success in the Chinese market, says The Guardian. The search engine giant partially pulled out of China last year after growing frustrated with the nation’s strict censorship policies, among other complaints.
The FBI has confirmed that it is looking into Google’s allegations.
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Beecher Tuttle is a TMCnet contributor. He has extensive experience writing and editing for print publications and online news websites. He has specialized in a variety of industries, including health care technology, politics and education. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.
Edited by Jennifer Russell
