PRC Narrates Cyber Victimhood

Jonah Reisboard

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Executive Summary:The People’s Republic of China (PRC) has responded to an alleged U.S. cyberattack on its National Time Service Center (NTSC) by constructing a narrative of empire and victimhood, consolidating its alignment with global south countries against U.S. hegemony.

Chinese analysts have used the attack as an opportunity to highlight perceived hypocrisy in the declared values of the United States and the U.S.-led international order, calling for stability and a “new cyberspace order.”

These responses echoed those following alleged Taiwanese cyberattacks earlier this year, which similarly asserted victimhood and attempted to create a more favorable information environment for the PRC to achieve its global aspirations.

On October 19, the Ministry of State Security (MSS; 国家安全部) informed national media that it had disrupted a U.S. cyberattack targeting the National Time Service Center (NTSC; 国家授时中心) (CCTV, October 19). The center is responsible for maintaining and distributing official Beijing Time (北京时间) throughout the People’s Republic of China (PRC), supporting logistics, finance, and energy functions (NTSC, accessed October 20). In response to the attack, state media claimed that the United States is “the biggest source of chaos in cyberspace” (网络空间的最大乱源), while denying what it calls the “PRC cyber threat theory” (中国网络威胁论) (CCTV, October 19).

Earlier this year, the Public Security Bureau of Tianhe District in Guangzhou announced that it had foiled a cyberattack linked to the Information, Communications, and Electronics Force (ICEFCOM; 國防部資通電軍指揮部) of Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense (Xinhua, June 5). According to the PRC’s National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center (CVERC; 国家计算机病毒应急处理中心), the Taiwanese unit carried out cyberattacks on the country’s military-industrial, government, energy, and transportation sectors over several years (CVERC, June 5). In this case, the PRC responded with a coordinated hybrid warfare campaign, releasing the identities of 20 suspected participants and offering rewards for their arrest (China Brief, July 25).