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Stephen Chen

The mainland's cyber army is deployed to improve the defensive capabilities of the People's Liberation Army, the Ministry of National Defence said in its first confirmation of the existence of the internet security force.
The statement came amid rising international concern over China's growing cyberwarfare and intelligence-gathering capabilities. 
Ministry spokesman Colonel Geng Yansheng  said on Wednesday that the PLA's cyber force was established to boost the safety of the military's computer network.
It was the first time Beijing had officially admitted the existence of its cyber army, although there have been media reports about its activities for years.
Geng was answering a question about whether the internet squad aimed to carry out cyberattacks on other countries' internet systems.
'China itself is a victim of cyberattacks; our online security protection is relatively weak,' Geng said. 
In March, the top US intelligence official told a Senate panel that China's cyberforce was a 'formidable concern' for the Pentagon.
'The Chinese have made a substantial investment in this area, they have a very large organisation devoted to it and they're pretty aggressive,' Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told the Senate Armed Services Committee. 
A report by the People's Liberation Army Daily last week said the Guangzhou Military Region had invested tens of millions of yuan on hardware for an offensive cyberteam consisting of about 30 members.
The team's codename is Unit Blue. Members were selected from across the military region - encompassing Hubei, Hunan, Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan provinces.
In one exercise, Unit Blue launched attacks on four targets simultaneously, using tactics such as computer viruses, garbage text and infiltration to steal an enemy's logistic statistics and defence plan. 
Xu Guangyu, a retired PLA major general and a senior researcher at the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association, said yesterday that in mainland military exercises, blue meant offensive.
'The potential attack may come from another government, or a non-government organisation, or a terrorist group,' Xu said. 'But in an exercise, we always assume our enemy to be the most aggressive, most intelligent, most resourceful and most advanced.'
Talented recruits could overcome disadvantages in hardware and software, he said.
'China has the world's largest number of internet users,' Xu said. 'The army is looking for talented young people and sending them to professional training centres. They are all geniuses.'
Professor Jing Jiwu, deputy director of the State Key Laboratory of Information Security, said offensive and defensive operations needed different skills.



Cyber army is defensive, P.L.A. colonel says