The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, affiliated with the US Congress, has labeled China the most threatening factor in cyberspace. In its annual report, issued Nov 14, the commission suggests the US government evaluate China’s cyber espionage activities and consider strengthening punishment of Chinese enterprises that benefit from this activity.

It has not been the first time that the commission has issued such an irresponsible report. Its fallacy not only exposes its ignorance in technology but also impedes Sino-US cooperation in facing global network security challenges.

China is against hacker attacks in any form, and has already made laws explicitly banning it. China has actually been a main victim of hacker attacks, network viruses and other illegal cyber activities.

Statistics show about 47,000 foreign IPs participating in the control of nearly 8.9 million host computers in China as Trojan or bot-net servers in 2011. This tendency has been rising in recent years.

Investigations also have found a considerable proportion of the most dangerous IPs are from the United States, and their threats are the most devastating. In 2011, about 9,528 IPs from the US controlled nearly 8.85 million host computers in China, and 3,328 US IPs controlled 3,437 websites in China. Among the forgery websites of Chinese banks’ official websites, 72.1 percent are from the US.

China has never chastised the US for it, despite the data we have, because it is known to all, except US authorities, that a hacker IP in one country does not mean the IP is operated by that country’s hacker, or that the attack from the IP is launched by that country.

As a big country in cyberspace, China has been open and cooperative to all kinds of exchanges and collaborations in the field of network security and has made constructive contributions to this cause at home and abroad.

In contrast, the US resorts to its approaches in the traditional security field and makes some pre-emptive cyberspace war schemes and strategies, which are against the nature of the network and the trend of information technology development.

The US should not send the wrong message. Cooperation is the only way to solve global cyberspace problems.

Translated by Li Yang from People’s Daily