The British government on Monday accused China of a cyberattack that compromised the voting records of tens of millions of people, making Britain’s biggest rival to China since British leaders heralded a “golden age” of Anglo-Chinese relations nearly a decade ago. attitude has hardened considerably.
Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden announced sanctions against two individuals and a company linked to state-affiliated groups involved in the attack, which he said targeted both election observers and MPs. He said the Foreign Office had summoned China’s ambassador to the UK for a formal diplomatic reprimand.
“This is the latest pattern of clearly hostile activity originating in China,” Mr Dowden told Parliament. “Part of our defense is to condemn this behavior.”
The government last year revealed an attack on the Electoral Commission, which oversees British elections, but did not identify those behind it. It reportedly began in 2021 and lasted several months, with the personal information of 40 million voters hacked.
The Electoral Commission said that in addition to the names and addresses of people registered to vote in Great Britain and Northern Ireland between 2014 and 2022, the names and addresses of overseas voters were also accessed.
The commission has previously noted that the electoral register contains limited data, much of which is already in the public domain. However, that data “may be combined with other data in the public domain, including data that individuals choose to share, to infer patterns of behavior or to identify and profile individuals.” He also added that there is a gender.
In addition to infiltrating the Electoral Commission, Dowden acknowledged that the Chinese had unsuccessfully tried to hack into the email accounts of several members of Congress.
He did not name the individuals, but it is believed that former Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith was among them. Tim Laughton, former Conservative education minister. Scottish National Party member Stewart MacDonald all have a history of making hawkish comments on China.
Mr Dowden said British authorities had determined it was “virtually certain” that state-linked group APT31 carried out reconnaissance on MPs in 2021, adding: “The vast majority of those targeted were He was a prominent figure who criticized China’s malign activities.” “No parliamentary accounts were successfully compromised,” he added.
Duncan Smith told the media on Monday that China should be “immediately labeled a threat”, a move Beijing said last year would “bring about a breakthrough period” in the UK’s foreign policy review. He said that it would be much more than the expression used in . It is a definitional and systemic challenge. ”
Duncan Smith says a number of MPs have been victimized by hacking attempts, impersonating people he calls “wolf warriors” and using fake email addresses to attack political parties around the world. He contacted his family and explained how he recanted his views and claimed to have admitted the following: he was a liar Following Mr Dowden’s statement, Duncan Smith welcomed the move but likened the announcement to “an elephant giving birth to a mouse”.
In comments to reporters ahead of the announcement, Chancellor Rishi Sunak said: “The current situation is that China is increasingly assertive abroad and authoritarian at home, and this is a monumental challenge. We are very clear about that.” It is also the greatest state-based threat to our economic security. ”
Electoral Commission Chairman John Pullinger said the hacking incident would not affect people’s ability to register, vote or participate in the democratic process. But he said in a statement that the announcement “demonstrates the international threats facing the UK’s democratic process and its institutions”, adding that the committee remained “vigilant of the risks”.
Tensions between the UK and China have increased in recent years due to concerns about Chinese threats to human rights and UK security. In 2020, under pressure from the US, the UK announced plans to reduce the role of Chinese telecoms giant Huawei in its 5G network.
Britain later accused new national security laws in the former British colony of Hong Kong, saying they breached the terms of the London Handover Agreement with Beijing. The government has issued visas to around 350,000 Hong Kong residents who hold British overseas passports, with around 160,000 emigrating by 2023.
In September, police arrested a 28-year-old British researcher who was a member of parliament on suspicion of working for the Chinese government. The man denies being a spy and has collaborated with prominent politicians on China policy, including Tom Tugendhat, who is currently the government’s security minister, raising concerns about possible security breaches. There are growing concerns about
The researcher’s arrest was believed to be unrelated to the cyberattack, but it widened a rift within the ruling Conservative Party over how London should engage with Beijing’s increasingly assertive government.
The current foreign secretary, David Cameron, served as prime minister at a time when Britain had closer trading ties with China. At a press conference with President Xi Jinping in 2015, the president hailed the beginning of a “golden era in UK-China relations.”
Prime Minister David Cameron has since toughened his comments about China, but is expected to explain the allegations to Conservative MPs later on Monday. But there is pressure from within his own party to go further. “It is clear that China is a hostile state and poses an unprecedented threat to our national security,” former Interior Secretary Suela Braverman told Congress.
Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Lin Jian on Monday dismissed reports of Chinese hacking as “fake news.”
“There must be appropriate objective evidence when investigating and determining the nature of a cyber incident,” Lin said. No,” he said.
christopher buckley Contributed to the report.
