It is worth mentioning that American specialists are highly concerned by the rapid increase of China’s capabilities in cyberspace. This being said, they are calling the US Administration and the Congress more and more insistently to work out measures to strengthen “defensive digital line” of the US. In early March the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (which is under direct supervision of the President and the Congress) held a hearing on potential threats from China in cyberspace.
Specialists believe that the rapid development of China’s capabilities in this sphere poses a threat to the US national security and safety of its allies. Participants stressed out the practical importance of the People’s Liberation Army Strategic Support Force who are in charge of space, cyber, and electronic warfare and security. Experts presume that international operations of Chinese hackers are curated by the Ministry of State Security of China. Intellectual property theft and disinformation were also among the named threats. Specialists mentioned vulnerabilities of the American information infrastructure and the lack of highly-qualified personnel. Countermeasures of the US Administration which include putting Chinese enterprises to the restrictive list were also called insufficient. It seemed at the hearing that all Chinese companies are considered as a potential threat, as they have to pass all the information and technological developments to the central authorities according to the Chinese Communist Party policy aimed at achieving interrelationship of private enterprises and defense industry. Analytics suggested the Congress to develop special initiatives which will increase funding for research on neutralization of malicious software, and to expand the amount of visa quotas for IT specialists from abroad. The importance of strengthening the public-private partnership was especially emphasized. American enterprises (such as Google LLC and Microsoft Corporation) are apparently obliged to inform the government about any threats to critical infrastructure. Expansion of the restrictive list of Chinese companies and deepening cooperation with partners and allies also were among voiced proposals. It is worth mentioning that a number of authoritative political scientists called the Congress for early pass on the US Innovation and Competition Act which also contains measures of threat relief in cyberspace. The US are forced to operate within free market standards that impose certain restrictions. We will follow the further action of Beijing.