The Impact of China on Cybersecurity: Fiction and Friction

Abstract

Exaggerated fears about the paralysis of digital infrastructure and the loss of competitive advantage contribute to a spiral of mistrust in U.S.-China relations. In every category of putative Chinese cyber threat, there are also considerable Chinese vulnerabilities and Western advantages. China has inadvertently degraded the economic efficiency of its networks and exposed them to foreign infiltration by prioritizing political information control over technical cyber defense. Although China also actively infiltrates foreign targets, its ability to absorb stolen data is questionable, especially at the most competitive end of the value chain, where the United States dominates. Similarly, China's military cyber capacity cannot live up to its aggressive doctrinal aspirations, even as its efforts to guide national information technology development create vulnerabilities that more experienced U.S. cyber operators can attack. Outmatched by the West, China is resorting to a strategy of international institutional reform, but it benefits too much from multistakeholder governance to pose a credible alternative. A cyber version of the stability-instability paradox constrains the intensity of cyber interaction in the U.S.-China relationship—and in international relations more broadly—even as lesser irritants continue to proliferate.

“Reading China”

“…A second trend is the danger of relying on technology and data, as in the Chinese plans for "informatisation." There has been a major increase in attention to internet or cyber security (wangluo anquan 网络安全 or xinxi anquan 信息安全) in Chinese policy lately, but the level of ICT security in China remains notoriously low, as large-scale hacks, data leaks, and online scams are frequent occurrences (Lindsay 2015). As IoT proliferates in China, ensuring even a basic level of security will also prove challenging, as IoT devices in general are poorly secured, are often used for extended periods, and often lack a mechanism to receive security updates.…”

Politics of the Internet in the People’s Republic of China: Unveiling users’ experiences

“…The Cyber Security Law (CSL) is a regulation with directives that enhances awareness, and protection from cyber-threats. It went into effect on June 1, 2017, and it marked a fundamental milestone in Chinese legal strata [21]. Consisting of 7 chapters, and 79 articles, the CSL granted the state control over the ‗content' and the ‗type' of on-line traffic.…”

El sistema internacional cibernético: elementos de análisis

“…El desafío es entender cómo las viejas fuentes del poder interactúan con nuevos formatos (Morozov E., 2011). Unos argumentan que el debate de las relaciones cibernéticas necesita moverse hacia las bases del estudio de la política internacional (Choucri, 2012;Kello, 2013;Valeriano & Maness, 2015;Lindsay, 2015a;Eriksson & Giacomello, 2007). En efecto, los problemas cibernéticos internacionales no están desmarcados completamente de los procesos de las relaciones internacionales cinéticos, en otras palabras, "las operaciones que ocurren en el dominio cibernético no están desconectadas de otros dominios de la interacción política internacional" (Valeriano & Maness, 2015, p. 14).…”

“…Por otra parte, hay una gran literatura técnica sobre seguridad de redes informáticas, así como una discusión emergente sobre los incentivos económicos y las fallas del mercado que dan forma al problema (Kramer, Starr, Wentz & (eds. ), 2009;Lindsay, 2015a;Hansen & Nissenbaum, 2009;Libicki, 2009;Owens, Dam, Lin & (eds. ) 2014).…”