FBI Looks Into Chinese Role in Darfur Site Hack

Amy Bennett writes "This past weekend we discussed an increasing level of attacks online, targeting Tibetan-based NGOs. Now the BBC is reporting that the Save Darfur Coalition has called in the FBI on what appears to be a similar matter. Allyn Brooks-LaSure, a spokesman with the group, doesn't know who is behind the attacks, but he said the IP addresses of the computers that had hacked his organization were from China. Save Darfur has been trying to get China, one of Sudan's largest trading partners, to pressure Sudan's government into stopping the mass killings in Darfur's ongoing civil war. 'Someone in Beijing is trying to send us a message,' Brooks-LaSure said. Probably the same message they're sending by continuing to shut down video sites covering the Tibetan unrest."

No chinese term for "bad PR"?

[elrous0]

They are on the verge of becoming a world superpower. They have worked hard to build up close economic ties with the West. They stand to make billions on the deals they've struck. They have been given a chance to host the Olpympics, a golden opportunity to show the world they've arrived.

And what do they do? They proceed to show the world that they are still a backwards oppressive country with no common sense, jeopardizing much of the progress that they've made over a bunch of piss-ass monks and to avoid some bad press that 99.9% of the world would have ignored if they hadn't tried so hard to supress it.

Is there no Chinese term for "Bad PR" or are they just that stupid?

Don't get me wrong, I'm no fan of the Dali Lama (like Penn Gillette, I think his intentions are a lot less pure [google.com] than he lets on). But jeez China, USE YOUR HEAD. At least wait until AFTER the Olympics to start busting heads.

IP was from China, sooo?

[SystematicPsycho]

So what if the IP came from China? Are there not a billion people there, who probably do have computers with default exploitable installations of Linux or Windows that could be used to launch attacks elsewhere? Not everything has to read like a Tom Clancy novel when it comes to international events.

Lately the world's been trying to undermine China who is looking like the next superpower. Western leaders are continually meeting with the Dalai Lama to make them mad. Soon there will be Olympic boycotts.

Does China's leadership even care

[Shivetya]

that is the real question. I think they don't.

Why? Because even with all the previous threats and actual atrocities they committed they were granted the Olympics. Every time they threaten Taiwan and the US responds in the political arena its the US who is chastised for being the war mongers.

The real question is, what is the fate of places like Tibet and Taiwan during and AFTER the Olympics?

Re:No chinese term for "bad PR"?

[sm62704]

They are on the verge of becoming a world superpower

On the verge? What would happen to our economy if we had a falling out? Damned near everything you can buy these days is made there!

Plus, they have for decades had nuclear weapons.

They not only already are a superpower, they are more powerful than the US. I don't see how we could possibly hurt them, but they could destroy us.

Thank you, patriotic multinational corporations, for buying my government and ruining my once great nation.

-mcgrew

(yes, I'm in a bad mood)

Re:IP was from China, sooo?

[elrous0]

Actually China seems to be doing a pretty good job of undermining THEMSELVES at this point, with or without Western help.

Re:No chinese term for "bad PR"?

[johnsonav]

They not only already are a superpower, they are more powerful than the US. I don't see how we could possibly hurt them, but they could destroy us.

They're not more powerful than the US. We both have a loaded gun pointed at the other in the form of trade. Sure, they could pretty well screw us over economically if they decided to. But there are hundreds of millions of newly urbanized Chinese, who make the toys and electronics that are shipped to the west, who would be very pissed off if the actions of their current government resulted in the loss of their relatively good paying jobs.

I would be surprised if the government of China would throw away the last fifty years of economic progress in their country over something like Tibet or Taiwan. There is a large section of their population who only accept the repressive authoritarianism of their government because of the massive increase in the standard of living. Take that away, and the current leaders will be out on their asses.

Re:Does China's leadership even care

[Anonymous Coward]

Every time they threaten Taiwan and the US responds in the political arena its the US who is chastised for being the war mongers.

Correct. Don't forget the universal leftist/socialist/progressive meme: "America bad!" And if happens that some non-American country has done something undeniably bad then the universal leftist/socialist/progressive response is: "But America is even worse."

Not to do a flamebait...

[aepervius]

...but in the last 10 years I can hardly think of a war started by china. So maybe the US reputation of warmonger isn't so overrated.

Oh, we could hurt them...

[Crazy Taco]

On the verge? What would happen to our economy if we had a falling out? Damned near everything you can buy these days is made there! Plus, they have for decades had nuclear weapons. They not only already are a superpower, they are more powerful than the US. I don't see how we could possibly hurt them, but they could destroy us. Thank you, patriotic multinational corporations, for buying my government and ruining my once great nation.

Actually, I still think we could hurt them far more than they can hurt us, for the following reasons:

1. Yes, they make everything, but who buys their stuff? If no one buys their stuff, what happens to them? They lose trillions of dollars. If they stop making their stuff, what happens to us? In the short term, prices on eBay go up for goods Americans have that are out of stock, but in the long run, we build our own factories to fill the market needs, and that is actually good for Americans. And if the factories don't get built here, they go to India and Latin American countries, which are far more stable anyway.
2. You say they have nuclear weapons. Well, we have more, and as China is a smaller nation in terms of land area, we have the advantage of having less square footage to wipe out. You say you can't see how we could hurt them, when we could actually wipe out their country many times over. And we have a least a partial missile shield, which of course wouldn't stop them, but is at least slightly better than the nothing they have. So there isn't going to be a nuclear engagement.
3. If we had a conventional weapons war, our conventional weapons are better. True, they have more people, but as more of our weaponry becomes automated that becomes less of an advantage for them, so long as we can mass produce our robots.
4. We also have higher technology than they do. We alone posess most of the technology for making the fastest computer chips, and that gives us an extraordinary advantage. They recently attempted to make their own home grown "Dragon" PC chip in an effort to not be dependent on us, and it turned out to be the equivalent of a very slow 486.

I will agree with you on one thing though: our multinationals are selling us out. They are building factories there so that they can sell in that market and avoid duties, but that really sucks for us because it pumps up the economy of a repressive regime. Still, though, at least that reason is better than the more common reason, which is that they want cheap labor to make goods they will ultimately sell not in China, but in the US. That's almost treason to humanity, because there are many countries in the world that aren't so repressive and that have people who would be desperate for those jobs and would work just as cheap. But no, we give their jobs to the repressive nation.

To the mods

[aepervius]

You might feel it as a flamebait... But sadly this is the feeling which is most probably shared by a lot of people right now. In the last 10 years the US has waged more war than China did (zero for China as far as I can tell). As such the US has earned a reputation of warmonger, whereas China, however how bad at human right is, has made no war in the last 10 years, and thus is not a warmonger.

Re:No chinese term for "bad PR"?

[chrispalasz]

They're not more powerful than the US. We both have a loaded gun pointed at the other in the form of trade. Sure, they could pretty well screw us over economically if they decided to. But there are hundreds of millions of newly urbanized Chinese, who make the toys and electronics that are shipped to the west, who would be very pissed off if the actions of their current government resulted in the loss of their relatively good paying jobs.

This is a good point.

I always used to joke around and say that if the US wanted to shut down almost every economy in the world... all the government has to do is close down Starbucks Coffee, McDonald's, and Coke.

But really, the economy of the US has extremely deep roots that won't be pulled out so easily. There's a world economy, and the foundation of it is the US, and more recently the EU. When you start seeing Chinese companies expanding worldwide is when you can start saying China is an economic competitor. Right now... they're just doing everyone else's industrialized dirty work. Why? Because there are a lot of people there... and a huge percentage of them are dirt poor. But right now... which nation's companies do you see selling the cars? How about computers? Cell phones? Other electronics? Gas? Anything that is widely known or popular among people? Not Chinese companies. No, they are still decades behind- and not just the US. South Korea is even blowing China out of the water, economically.

The world economy is a pretty delicate web. You can't just take any nation out without having a noticeable negative impact on other large economies, like people seem to be assuming. It doesn't work like that.

Re:Oh, we could hurt them...

[Twisted Willie]

Don't forget that China has a massive dollar reserve. They have the power to completely crash the value of the dollar by dumping their reserve on the global market. And if they would actually do this, every country with dollar reserves would follow to minimize their losses.

Their reserves would be hurt by a dollar crash ofcourse, but they'd have the 'bonus' of massively increasing prices on imported goods for the USA. Including oil, because if the dollar would crash, OPEC would most likely start pricing their barrels in Euros.

It's pretty much MADD, but this time on an economic level.

Re:What goes around ...

[johnsonav]

Well yes, it is in their interest to make sure the markets are good. But what if they decide it isn't in their interest? Then what?

That's when one hundred million urban Chinese men, only a generation removed from the rice paddy, who got used to their cell phones, DVD players and relatively high standard of living, decide that returning to the country farm, when the factory they used to work at closes, isn't what they would like to do. Without those factories that manufacture goods for export, there will be an awful lot of pissed off young men who have an issue with the current Chinese government.

Not to mention that many of those factories are owned by the Chinese military. They might have something to say about the government closing off markets for trade.