On this episode of China uncensored
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