China hacks again!

hi welcome to China uncensored I'm your host Chris Chappell

chinese state back computer hackers have hit the US government,

Western businesses and human rights organizations

but that was just small-time stuff

the hackers from the Chinese government have just hit

what is clearly their greatest enemy

and the absolute biggest threat to China

pure traditional Chinese culture Shen Yun

That was a clip from Shen Yun

a classical Chinese dance and music show that travels around the world

according to their press release they were the victims of a massive cyberattack from

China

although it's very hard to say for sure who exactly is behind this kind of cyber assault

it does follow the pattern of previous attacks that have been linked back to the Chinese

military

just like Ben's pattern of eating other people's lunches in the office fridge

Ben we know it was you

so why would the Chinese authorities be targeting a dance group?

poor risk assessment?

actually no.

the Communist Party has from the very beginning known the power of the arts

They have this pesky ability to make people think, inspire even

that's why the party waged specific campaigns like the cultural revolution to eradicate

traditional Chinese culture

burning books smashing relics banning the teaching of traditional arts

You know generally destroying people's faith in a traditional culture

that had lasted thousands of years

and produced one of the greatest civilizations the world has ever seen

No big loss, only countless treasures

and thousands of years of knowledge that may never be recovered

Now Shen Yun's mission is to revive that authentic traditional Chinese culture

so that probably gets them on the Chinese Communist Party's blacklist

And according to the same press release some of the dances depict

the Communist Party's persecution of Falun Gong practitioners inside China

and many of the performers themselves are Falun Gong practitioners

I've talked before about how former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin launched a campaign

to imprison and torture people who practice Falun Gong

so if they talk about Falun Gong I wonder if that's the reason the show was banned in

china

One thing the cyberattack tells me is that despite Chinese leader Xi Jinping

purging members of the Jiang Zemin faction that began the persecution of Falun Gong

it's still going pretty strong

But the hacking of Shen Yun is actually a part of a serious problem that affects everyone

According to China cyber intelligence expert James Mulvenon,

In July 1999 the exact month when the communist party began targeting Falun Gong on a large

scale

Two Canadian Falun Gong websites were attacked by chinese hackers

An American one was hit shortly after

The address of the hackers was traced back to the location of the Ministry of Public

Security

Mulvenon says this was likely the first public case of direct chinese state sponsored hacking

Years later a defector from the 610 office, the gestapo-like agency charged with eradicating

Falun Gong

confirmed this in an interview with China researcher Ethan Gutmann

These chinese hackers that a congressional advisory board called

the single greatest risk to the security of American technologies

that have hit the New York Times US government and defense systems

stolen the intellectual property of corporations around the world

may have gotten their start by attacking overseas Falun Gong websites

they just grow up so fast...

next thing you know

they'll be able to hack my second life character

Nooooo.

Turns out though that many Falun Gong practitioners are actually pretty skilled with computers

themselves

they created software called freegate that people throughout China

used to break through the internet firewall

it's also been adopted by internet users in other repressive regimes

around the world like Egypt Burma and to particularly good effect

during the massive protests in Iran in 2009

Of course there are plenty of times when the Chinese Internet overlords are not as skilled

In January last year instead of blocking the website where you can download freegate

Chinese censors accidentally rerouted the entire Chinese Internet there

Clearly the Chinese government doesn't want us to see Shen Yun

I think i'll buy my tickets now

Thanks for watching this episode of China uncensored

once again I'm Chris Chappell

see you next time