Chinese analysts on Monday slammed the "immature" U.S. decision to retaliate against China for allegedly hacking into a government database and stealing the personal information of U.S. citizens.
"Beijing has no plan either to launch a cyber attack or to initiate a cyber-conflict against the U.S. While this time Washington publicly threatened to 'deter' China by launching a direct cyber attack, Beijing will have no choice other than to launch a counterattack if this attack really happens. In the worst-case scenario, a kind of limited 'cyber war' may be inevitable," Shen Yi, an associate professor at the School of International Relations and Public Affairs at Fudan University, told the Global Times Monday.
The Obama administration decided to act against China after the theft of more than 20 million Americans' personal information from the databases of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which manages the U.S. civil service, in April, according to a Friday report in The New York Times.
The report said that the U.S. authorities have concluded that the hack was "vast in scope and ambition" and that it could not be dealt with using the usual measures taken in normal espionage cases.
It added that the options being considered by the U.S. range from attacks on the so-called "Great Firewall" to diplomatic protests.
The Chinese Embassy in the U.S. on Friday refuted the accusations that China was involved in cyber attacks against the U.S., criticizing such moves as "counterproductive."
"Cyber attacks across borders are very complex and hard to trace. Therefore, combating such activities requires closer international cooperation and formulating international rules and norms to govern behaviors in cyberspace," said Zhu Haiquan, spokesperson of the embassy.
China has asked the U.S. to provide the IP addresses of the hackers who attacked the OPM database, so that it can assist in the investigation and take necessary actions including cutting off the servers which launched the attack from inside the Chinese mainland, but the U.S. has not responded, according to Shen.
"Cyberspace problems can be solved only if both sides are willing to discuss the matter without pressure," Shen added.
China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said at a press briefing in June that the U.S. should discard such suspicions and refrain from making groundless accusations.
