Is Beijing spying on Moscow? Chinese hackers target Russian agencies for war secrets: Report
Chinese state-affiliated groups have been reportedly hacking Russian government agencies and companies since the Ukraine war began, seeking military intelligence, according to cybersecurity analysts.According to NYT report, The cyber campaign intensified in May 2022, shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, even as Presidents Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin touted an unprecedented era of cooperation between their nations.In one notable incident in 2023, a Chinese group called Sanyo masqueraded as representatives of a major Russian engineering firm to gather intelligence about nuclear submarines, according to findings by TeamT5, a Taiwanese cybersecurity research firm.While China’s military and technological capabilities surpass Russia’s, Chinese military strategists have long noted their forces’ lack of actual combat experience. The Ukraine conflict presents Beijing with an opportunity to study modern warfare tactics and Western military equipment’s effectiveness, experts say.A classified FSB (Russia’s domestic security agency) counterintelligence document obtained by The New York Times reveals Moscow’s growing concerns about Chinese espionage. The document explicitly labels China an “enemy” and acknowledges Beijing’s efforts to acquire Russian defence technology and learn from its military operations in Ukraine.The relationship appears more complex than the publicly proclaimed “no-limits” partnership. While Russia has become increasingly dependent on China for oil exports and war-critical technology amid Western sanctions, the extent of Chinese cyber operations suggests significant mutual distrust.Though allies, both are occasionally known to engage in espionage against each other, the scale of China’s cyber campaign against Russia indicates both deeper suspicion between the powers and Moscow’s reluctance to fully share its battlefield insights from Ukraine.
