America Prosecuting 5 Chinese Soldiers Is a Huge Provocation

The U.S. Department of Justice announced the indictment of five Chinese military officers on the May 19, claiming they helped Chinese companies to steal American corporate business information and that they are from the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Unit 61398.

Since last February, the U.S. has accused the "hacker army” headquartered in Shanghai of long-term theft of U.S. trade secrets.

The FBI announced the names of the five soldiers with the words “FBI Wanted” on their photos. Americans say that this is a public initiative to call out and denounce suspects. What the newspaper did not say was that Washington drawing support from the CICA Summit brings shame upon China.

The U.S. Department of Justice’s indictment is dozens of pages long. At first glance it looks real, but the only country people should think about issuing allegations against is the one responsible for Edward Snowden’s worldwide leakage of the PRISM program. The world points its nose at it, pokes at its spine, and laughs at the indictment that it pretends to take seriously.

Chinese soldiers have systematically collected U.S. business intelligence for Chinese companies. This sort of intimacy exceeds the Chinese people’s imagination of a military-civilian, fish-water relationship. The fact that Chinese troops can still support local construction thanks to the U.S. government gives us a breath of fresh air.

I fear that the world believes the United States to be the world's number one country of national intelligence. Through the Internet, it handles intelligence without restraint. Snowden confirms this to the world. Washington also helps the world to re-understand the meaning of "intelligence power," and that is not only being able to break into other countries’ intelligence, but also to dress oneself as a victim of a generation of hackers.

According to Snowden’s disclosures, the U.S. attacked China’s backbone networks, universities and government agencies among other things. The Chinese government’s grasp on this situation will be much more serious than the situation itself. The White House up to now still owes an apology to China, but the International Tribunal should be targeting PRISM’s design and implementers. Instead, the U.S. posts five photos of Chinese soldiers. There is only one word for this: "shamelessness."

The U.S. Department of Justice directly prosecuting these active duty officers makes Washington seem to treat U.S. domestic law as "humanity law.” The U.S. uses its own so-called "evidence" to put up five Chinese people’s photos with their names and list them as "wanted," which is a serious violation of their human rights. Chinese human rights awareness and strength are quite low, but we believe that these five people should gather legal ammunition to defend their reputations.

I recommend these five soldiers to look to the Chinese court to sue the U.S. Justice Department for its defamation and physical threats toward them and demand compensation. I hope they gather courage, do not fear trouble, and their military leader supports them in doing so. I also hope the Chinese court accepts the case, calls the U.S. Justice Department officials to order, and finally brings the soldiers to innocence.

This provocation from the U.S. is terrible, and China must not suffer in silence. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Defense have issued this. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was right in announcing the suspension of China-U.S. online work groups, but we should still do more.

China released a report on computer network attacks from the United States, but what we published is more statistical than specific. China should encourage departments and individuals who have received these attacks to stand up to the United States.

We should expose the American cyberwarriors, check the back doors that the U.S. preinstalled into China’s computers, publicize the truth, and prove that the U.S. is a thief acting like a cop. Chinese people are too restrained. Whenever we encountered problems, we would remember China-U.S. relations. When we announced the capture of American spies, we said they were “from some unknown country.” In the end, it is us who suffered.

This time, we must take action against the United States; let Washington know that although China may have a weaker media power and a less flexible society, when Washington becomes desperate for China’s help, we will absolutely not be trifled with. The new China-U.S. relations are not able to rely on civility to change the U.S., so we must fight it and let it understand the importance of compromising with China.

On network security issues, the United States is a pretentious, high-level rogue. We must not have any illusions about it.