We don’t know if it was the smoking gun or the smoking chopstick, but we finally have China on record admitting to sponsoring cyberattacks against critical U.S. infrastructure.
The Wall Street Journal reports (April 10, 2025),on a December meeting in Geneva during which, "Chinese officials acknowledged in a secret December meeting that Beijing was behind a widespread series of alarming cyberattacks on U.S. infrastructure, according to people familiar with the matter, underscoring how hostilities between the two superpowers are continuing to escalate.
"The Chinese delegation linked years of intrusions into computer networks at U.S. ports, water utilities, airports and other targets, to increasing U.S. policy support for Taiwan, the people, who declined to be named, said."
This was quite a change from Chinese officials blaming the U.S. for cyber-breaches of its own networks. Or blaming the weather. Or blaming anyone that was close — credible or not.
Summit participants attributed the change to Chinese officials wanting the U.S. to know in no uncertain terms what would happen if the nation continued its support of Taiwan.
The meeting was attended by Biden officials on their last foreign junket and even then they could not avoid continuing their obsequious, deferential and subservient posture toward the Chinese Communist Party.
We don’t know if they were wringing their hands while they were doing it, but the Bidens conveyed their "doubts" that President Xi Jinping was "fully aware of the activities of the hackers."
Proving once Biden is ensnared by a foreign adversary, he stays that way — beholden to them.
That cringe performance is approximately when the Chinese made it clear they were behind the attacks and that the U.S. was to back off Taiwan if it knew what was good for it.
The Biden crew did try to assert that "hacking into civilian critical infrastructure by Volt Typhoon . . .is considered an unacceptable provocation, the officials said."
And how any use of infrastructure cyberattacks "would [be] viewed as an act of war."
But coming from this Biden collection of squishes, no one know how seriously China takes the threat.
The Trump administration has ideas of its own and they don’t involve bending the knee to China. "The State Department didn’t comment on the meeting but said the U.S. had made clear to Beijing it will 'take actions in response to Chinese malicious cyber activity,' describing the hacking as ‘some of the gravest and most persistent threats to U.S. national security.'"
The Trump administration’s defense forces may also be indicating a change in orientation, it "said the Pentagon will pursue more offensive cyber strikes against China."
To which your loyal columnists can only say it’s about time the U.S. went on the cyber offensive instead of simply sitting inert and waiting for the next Chinese or Russian cyberattack.
Two can play at the hacking game.
It’s high time we started.
It's called defending ourselves, for a change.
Something the Joe Biden camp and its outposts never quite understood — at all — and never will.
Michael Reagan, the eldest son of President Ronald Reagan, is a Newsmax TV analyst. A syndicated columnist and author, he chairs The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Mr. Reagan is an in-demand speaker with Premiere Speaker's Bureau. Read Michael Reagan's Reports — More Here.
Michael R. Shannon is a commentator, researcher for the League of American Voters, and an award-winning political and advertising consultant with nationwide and international experience. He is author of "Conservative Christian's Guidebook for Living in Secular Times (Now With Added Humor!)" Read Michael Shannon's Reports — More Here.