Last week, China accused the United States National Security Agency (NSA) of carrying out cyberattacks during February’s Asian Winter Games. Beijing maintains that the NSA targeted essential Chinese industries, while also accusing the University of California and Virginia Tech University of being complicit in the attack.
Three NSA agents were even identified by the Xinhua state-run news agency.
“We urge the U.S. to take a responsible attitude on the issue of cybersecurity and … stop unprovoked smears and attacks on China,” ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said in a news briefing.
Valid Claim or Deflection From Chinese Hacking?
Even casual observers of the cybersecurity sector may find it a bit surprising that China would take such a firm stance, given its ties to state-sponsored hackers and its past allegations of conducting cyber operations against the West.
“It’s the oldest dance in cyber geopolitics: Beijing cries foul, points fingers at the NSA, and pretends that cyberspace isn’t a mirror where both sides throw stones while living in digital glass houses,” explained geopolitical analyst Irina Tsukerman, president of threat assessment firm Scarab Rising.
Moreover, Beijing’s latest allegations came just weeks after the United States Department of Justice (DoJ) unsealed sweeping charges against 12 Chinese nationals for their roles in hacking activities that had targeted U.S. federal and state systems on behalf of the Chinese intelligence services in recent years.
It is an example of turnabout being fair play suggested Evan Dornbush, former NSA cybersecurity expert, who told ClearanceJobs, “We learned from U.S. press that Chinese representatives admitted a connection to the ‘Typhoon’ attacks that broke into US infrastructure, including home routers and water filtration centers.”
Dornbush added that China is now accusing the U.S. of carrying out cyber warfare.
China’s Tit-for-Tat
The fact that three NSA employees were named is just the latest cyber melodrama. Washington is no more likely to hand over the three named individuals to Beijing than the Chinese dozen will be sent to the U.S.
“It’s less a smoking gun and more of a theatrical performance – one part cyber forensics, two parts propaganda,” Scarab Rising’s Tsukerman told ClearanceJobs.
She added that we shouldn’t be surprised that the U.S. conducts such operations, not in the slightest.
“Cyber espionage has long been a cornerstone of modern statecraft. The NSA’s job isn’t to knit sweaters and play Sudoku; it’s to gather intelligence, especially on strategic rivals,” explained Tsukerman. “The real shock would be if it weren’t probing the networks of a country that hacks Western think tanks, infiltrates defense contractors, and hoovers up intellectual property like it’s going out of style.”
It could be described as a form of “selective outrage” on both countries’ parts.
“China has mastered the art of cyber intrusion, and now it wants to claim the moral high ground. That’s like a pickpocket filing a police report because someone else swiped his wallet,” added Tsukerman. “‘The pot calling the kettle black’ doesn’t even begin to capture the irony here.”
To use another idiom, neither Beijing’s allegations nor Washington’s charges will change the proverbial price of tea in China (although tariffs might). It also won’t stop such activities from occurring.
“Public comment on offensive cyber operations from both parties doesn’t fundamentally change anything for the defensive community,” said Dornbush. “The best advice is to assume that you and your organization are being targeted for exploitation, and invest in effective risk mitigation strategies- including high-quality monitoring and response capabilities.”
Chinese Outrage
Even more telling than the actual accusation is the timing and the delivery. That includes the publicly naming of alleged NSA agents, which isn’t just about transparency. Rather, it could be seen as a move straight from the political warfare playbook.
“It’s meant to embarrass, to distract from internal failings, and to frame the U.S. as the aggressor in the eyes of the Global South,” noted Tsukerman.
It is a way for Beijing to maintain a moral high ground and question why it is called out for the exact activities.
“But the comparison doesn’t quite hold. Western cyber operations, while certainly robust, tend to focus on national security and counterintelligence,” Tsukerman continued. “China’s approach, on the other hand, is industrial-scale economic warfare – think less ‘spy vs. spy’ and more ‘smash-and-grab’ in the global tech market.”
In that way, Beijing’s outrage is less about being hacked and more about being hacked back.
“When China goes public with accusations against the U.S. – especially in cyber matters – it’s rarely just about the breach. It’s about narrative control, strategic positioning, and information warfare dressed in legalese,” said Tsukerman. “This latest stunt, where Beijing not only accuses Washington of a cyberattack but brazenly names alleged NSA operatives, isn’t simply reactive outrage – it’s a calibrated component of a broader digital power strategy with global stakes.”
China Exporting Its Cyber Sovereignty
Tsukerman further told ClearanceJobs that at the heart of China’s posture is its vision of “cyber sovereignty” – as in the idea that each state has the absolute right to control and police the internet within its borders, free from external interference.
“It sounds innocuous, even reasonable, until you realize it’s a Trojan horse for authoritarian digital control. The endgame isn’t just censorship at home – it’s exporting a model of internet governance where free speech is redefined as a security risk, and foreign platforms operate only under party oversight or not at all,” she added.
This may have strategic ramifications.
“China is lobbying hard in multilateral forums – like the UN’s International Telecommunication Union (ITU) – to rewrite the rules of cyberspace in its image,” Tsukerman continued. “It seeks a system where surveillance, state firewalls, and nationalized tech stacks are not violations of human rights, but standard operating procedure. Publicly accusing the U.S. of cyberattacks becomes ammunition in this ideological campaign, reinforcing its pitch to Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia: ditch the Western-led internet; join the ‘neutral’, ‘orderly’ digital sphere with Chinese infrastructure.”
In that light, the outrage over NSA activities is more of a political stunt than a moral stance. It’s not about stopping cyber espionage, but is instead about dominating the narrative, reshaping global norms, and casting itself as a digital underdog battling imperialist overreach.
Moreover, the danger isn’t that China is outraged.
“The danger is that it’s successfully convincing a sizable swath of the world that it’s justified – and that its model of tightly controlled, state-centric cyberspace is the future,” Tsukerman explained. “The U.S. and its allies can respond tactically to these accusations – but unless they offer a coherent, values-based alternative for global cyber governance, they risk losing the digital Cold War not on the battlefield, but in the courtroom of global public opinion.”
