U.S. Accuses Chinese Nationals of Infiltrating Corporate and Government Technology

The Trump administration ramped up its pressure campaign on Beijing on Thursday, as the Justice Department accused two Chinese nationals with ties to the country’s Ministry of State Security of infiltrating the biggest providers of internet services and boring into government computer systems, including a major Department of Energy laboratory.

The indictment of the two men came just months after the Justice Department lured one of the Chinese intelligence agency’s officers to Belgium, where he was arrested and extradited to the United States. Both cases focus on an intelligence effort based in Tianjin to advance Beijing’s economic and geopolitical interests with an extraordinarily broad attack on Western companies and governments.

Just as the indictment was unsealed, Britain identified the same intelligence operation, often named APT 10 by cybersecurity firms, as responsible for separate attacks in that country and beyond. The statement from Britain’s Foreign Office was part of a new, collective effort by Western allies to call out China’s attempts to obtain trade secrets and intellectual property through a state-coordinated cyberespionage campaign, according to people involved in the planning. Australia and New Zealand on Friday issued similar statements.