UK Accuses China of Cyberattacks on Electoral Database

The British government formally blamed China for a string of cyberattacks on the UK's democratic institutions in the past few years.

The BBC initially reported on the matter on Monday (Mar. 25) after the British parliament announced that Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden would address colleagues about the accusations.

Addressing the House of Commons, the parliament's elected lower house, Dowden said that "Chinese state-affiliated actors" had been behind at least two separate "malicious" attacks on the country's electoral watchdog and lawmakers themselves.

"Taken together these actions demonstrate a clear and persistent pattern of behavior that signals hostile intent from China," he told MPs. "The cyber threat posed by China-affiliated actors is real and it is serious. But it is more than equalled by our determination and resolve to resist it."

Chinese Nationals, Firms Identified, Sanctioned

In response, the UK announced sanctions on two individuals and summoned the Chinese ambassador to lodge a protest about the matter. They were identified as Zhao Guangzong and Ni Gaobin.

A Chinese company named Wuhan Xiaoruizhi Science and Technology Company was also sanctioned for allegedly working for the China state-affiliated cyber espionage group Advanced Persistent Threat Group 31 (APT31)

Dowden's statement marked a shift in the UK's readiness to call out China's cyberattacks and a departure from its more friendly relations with China, which were brought about by then-Prime Minister David Cameron a few years ago, prior to his admission to the unelected House of Lords after current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak appointed him as foreign secretary.

Beijing has since hit back at the claims, calling them "fabricated and malicious slander," Politico reported.

China's foreign ministry spokesperson, Lin Jian, said the government cracked down and punished all types of malicious cyber activities. He called on all parties involved to "stop spreading false information and take a responsible attitude to jointly maintain peace and security in cyberspace."

Westminster's stance also came after Washington charged seven Chinese nationals in a "sinister" 14-year scheme to hack the computers of high-ranking US government officials.

New Zealand also accused China of targeting its parliamentary network in 2021, with its country's defense minister, Judith Collins, saying that another hacking group known as APT40 was behind the "malicious cyber activity."

She said, "The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable."

Meanwhile, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neill made a joint statement saying that, while its electoral systems and other democratic institutions were not targeted similarly to what the UK suffered, they were concerned over what they called the "persistent targeting of democratic institutions and processes."

The ministers said, "This behavior is unacceptable and must stop. "Australia calls on all states to act responsibly in cyberspace."

Anti-China MPs: Sanctions Not Enough

Three of the British MPs targeted by APT31—former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, former minister Tim Loughton, and Scottish National Party (SNP) MP Stewart McDonald—reportedly received a briefing from the head of parliamentary security.

Local media considered the three as "China hawks" and were just some of the lawmakers who are also members of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, scrutinizing and criticizing Beijing's activities.

McDonald said that the British response to China's alleged cyberattack was like turning up to a "gun fight with a wooden spoon."

Meanwhile, Smith called for more sanctions against Chinese government actors, describing the deputy PM's statement as "like an elephant giving birth to a mouse."

Despite this, he called the announcement "a watershed moment where the UK takes a stand for human rights and an international rules-based system."

"The West has to wake up to the fact this is a challenge to the very way that we live our lives," he added. "To our belief in democracy, human rights, freedom of expression, freedom of worship. These are the things that we hold dear, but we seem reluctant to want to defend those against the others who hold none of those virtues and values and want to take ours from us."