Cyber Warfare Between the United States and China Discourse Analysis
Travis Kerr
COM. 306
Paper 1
Abstract
Every day we grow closer to a looming threat of war between two of the
most powerful nations on the globe,-: China and the United States. However the
world will end not with a bang but with a whimper. For the past several years China
has been engaging in a type of warfare not familiar to previous centuries, a new type
of warfare that comes as a result of our dependency on technology, cyber warfare.
Through a discourse analysis of eleven news articles and five scholarly sources I
coded for themes like whether the article was biased or unbiased, if so towards the
U.S or towards China, whether or not the report was more geared to a speculative
approach or more technologically driven. Additionally I assessed the news sources
on how imminent the threat level has become due to the more recent cyber attacks
and if they addressed militaristic attacks or civilians/businesses. Although the
results showed disparities across the board, it was my understanding that striking
similarities did exist between each of the sources.
In an age where the world is heavily globalized, tensions are high between
the two largest economies; China and the United States. A new form of Cold War has
arisen with the development of high-speed communication technology known
collectively as “cyber warfare.” With an increasingly Cold War-esque competitive
military escalation between the two giants (most recently regarding territorial
disputes in the South China Sea), anxieties over a potential conflict are gaining
traction.
To better understand the recent events I first selected three scholarly
sources to get a background understanding of the issue, I used How to Win the
Cyber-War We’re Losing The Art of (Cyber) War, The 2011 Report to Congress of the
U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission and How China will use cyber
warfare to leapfrog in Military Competiveness. Next I set up a discourse analysis
coding for the criteria I would find in the news articles. I coded for unbiased, bias
towards the US, biased towards China, speculative, technological, imminent threat,
avoidable, militaristic and civilians/business. I wanted to get a multitude of different
articles with correspondingly varied reports, I looked at Valuewalk, Hang the
Bankers, Independent, The Wire, Time Magazine, Techworm, The Daily Beast, Fortune,
The Week, Extremetech, Infosecurity, and The Fiscal Times.
While assessing the cyber-war it’s imperative to understand the reasoning
behind such actions. China’s military might is inferior to that of the U.S. Although
China “may be a global power economically, its military lacks force projection
beyond the Asia Pacific region. Its traditional military hardware is one to three
generations behind the US and Russia.” (Fritz 83) Because of this inadequacy, as
Fritz, 2008 notes China uses cyber warfare in an attempt to gain an asymmetric
advantage to dissuade aggression while they work on building up their other
military divisions. Additionally I examined a scholarly source titled “How China will
use cyber warfare to leapfrog in military competitiveness” discusses how China’s
current military capabilities are far behind that of the U.S., though it mentions they
have been growing exponentially in the past two decades. China’s combined total
number of troops is approximately 7 million members, this is including all of their
five military branches, the PLA Ground Force, PLA Navy, PLA Air force, Second
Artillery Forces, paramilitary forces and their reserves. However “the PLA has tried
to transform itself from a land based power, to a smaller, mobile, high tech power
that is capable of reaching beyond its borders.” (Fritz 3) This source goes into great
depth concerning the “why?” in relation to cyber security. It argues all the greatest
risks that China poses to the US including cyber warfare’s capability to cripple a
state’s electric power transmission, transportation systems, and communication
systems. The overall sentiment is pessimistic; it weighs out the worst possible
scenarios the U.S could potentially face if China increases their attacks.
After perusing the scholarly sources for the appropriate amount of
background knowledge I looked at the news sources. The first news source I
examined was a non-biased account of cyber attacks between Russia and China
against the United States and US attacks on China and Russia. Morris mentions that
“Cyber attacks could already have been launched against Russia and China, and
concerns about the conduct of the United States has been expressed by such critics
of US foreign policy as Ron Paul and Paul Craig Roberts.” (Morris) He goes on to
mention the validity of these actions due to the assertion that Chinese hackers are
carrying out attacks against the US in large numbers. The critique shows both sides
of the debate but offers little factual determination. The next article I looked at
coincidently also mentioned Russia along with China and the US, however it went
into more specific detail.
Cyber warfare: Russia & China vs United States provided me with some muchneeded insight. “There’s a difference between leverage and information,” (Cyber
Warfare: Russia & China vs United States - Hang The Bankers.) cyber security expert
Dave Aitel states in the article. Aitel goes into further detail when he mentions that
China is not using cyber attacks as a form of blackmail but instead to merely
gather as much information about US military intelligence as possible. This source
although heavily biased towards American interests provides the reader with
quotes from top CIA officials and NSA operatives but lacks alterative viewpoints.
The US’ official response however is summed up in an orderly fashion in
the next article I examined. Interestingly the article was from the Independent, a
UK news source. “In an unprecedented move, the US leveled criminal charges
against five Chinese military officials.” (Cornwell) This third party source was
helpful because it was unbiased, merely stating the facts; “China, however,
proclaims its innocence, and maintains that the real culprit is the US.” (Cornwell)
the advantage of these articles is though it is less specific it allows the reader to
make their own interpretations. The Wire’s take on cyber warfare was my next
source, this was relatively unbiased and offered a much more technological
understanding of the issue rather than a speculative piece. Abad-Santos mentions
that Chinese hackers are costing the US $300 billion a year; it also is the only
article to discuss both the military and civilian implications. The Wire states that
in regards to the US response “the Pentagon is doing more than it's saying — and
building up a more sophisticated cyber battle plan of our own.” (Abad-Santos)
Time Magazine known is a very credible source though it is biased towards
American interests in its report. The value of this article is the extent of the
information on the subject, and according to Thompson the threat is not imminent.
Thompson claims, “Most Chinese cyber intrusions are through well-known
vulnerabilities that could be fixed with patches already developed.” Where the
other articles pessimistically curtailed the attacks as drastic and threatening to
national security, this report states that with good basic security habits 90% of
theses attacks could be prevented. Conversely techworm’s analysis on the subject
is on the opposite side of the spectrum. The article title is appropriately titled
Cyber Warfare: United States decides hack back Against China. Although initially
biased, this article did give China’s perspective stating the “US itself is the most
active executioner of cyber spying against foreign countries, especially against
China.” (Iyer) Iyer further discusses the US response and provides an analysis of
the White House’s decision making being torn between responding with a
diplomatic protest or a more drastic approach being the dismissal of known
Chinese agents in the United States. The value of this piece is it weighs many
options instead of stating one idea with supporting details.
Shane Harris of The Daily Beast offers a news source article completely
unlike anything else I had read before. Fittingly titled China Reveals its Cyber
Secrets the author discusses how “A high-level Chinese military organization has
for the first time formally acknowledged that the country’s military and its
intelligence community have specialized units for waging war on computer
networks.” (Harris) The information in this article thus contradicts previous
articles with statements on the Chinese denial of its part in attacks. This unbiased
commentary is enlightening and was objectively the most substantial.
Contrarily where the previous article used specific details on military
spying, the next critique I examined was resoundingly business focused. Fortune
magazine’s account separates the hackers into individuals attacking businesses and
state backed hackers seeking strategic information. Though the article primarily
details business interests, “If the U.S. government can’t protect its businesses,
those businesses should protect themselves. Otherwise that new product on the
market might look all too familiar.” (Summers) The analysis states that these
attacks are not exclusive to one entity or government and are in fact happening
across the board in every industry.
The Week has an article that gives a valuable interpretation of the cyber
attacks coupled with recent headlining news events. It provides the reader with
information regarding the recent activities in the South China Sea and relates it to
the cyber attacks. It concludes with “As with the looming cyber war, such a U.S.
demonstration in the South China Sea would be merely the next move in an open-
ended game.” Therefore it gives the readers their own sense of interpretation on
the issue joined with an American bias towards China. Extremetech and
Infosecurity on the other hand managed to give purely unbiased responses.
Extremetech provides their readers with an interrogative map showing attacks
originating from the US and spanning the globe as well as a large influx of attacks
aimed at the US. The writing does not include anything new relative to the rest of
the articles I reviewed however the map it provides is extremely useful.
Infosecurity being a tech website does not delve deep into the politics of the cyber
warfare but simply states the facts, adding CEO of boutique security consulting
firm Taia Global, Jeffrey Carr’s input “While China certainly does engage in
many of these attacks, they are blamed for almost all of them – which is wrong. At
least 30+ countries now have the capability to engage in cyber warfare and
espionage.” (China vs US, Cyber Superpowers Compared)
There are many different layers and dimensions to this issue, over the
course of my discourse analysis I have learned why the Chinese have engaged in
this warfare, how the US hopes to respond, how the Chinese have reacted to the
accusations and what their response is. It is imperative to look at this issue without
using any bias and to cut out most of the speculation, the fact remains however
that both sides are engaged in superfluous cyber attacks at the expense of both
countries national security.
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