By AMY QIN JULY 17, 2014 4:47 AMJuly 17, 2014 7:15 am
Is Superman, depicted here in a mural in Beijing, a weapon being deployed to turn Chinese away from their own heroes?Credit Michael Reynolds/European Pressphoto Agency
Tensions between the United States and China over cybersecurity have risen as the two countries continue to trade barbs over hacking. But according to an essay on the website of a state newspaper that was widely republished this week, there is, in fact, a longer-running cyberwar underway between the United States and China. And the weapons employed, the essay argues, are far more sophisticated than hacking.
Lei Feng, the Chinese soldier revered as a model of selflessness.Credit Adam Dean for The New York Times
“America has long used the Internet to poison Chinese civilization and manipulate public opinion to influence politics,” reads the essay posted on the website of Guangming Daily, a Communist Party-backed paper aimed at intellectuals. “Hackers are only the lowest level of this cyberwar.”
Pointing to “innumerable articles and writings” circulating online, the essay argues that the “highest level” of this cyberwar has been the insidious advance of American culture, which, it says, has had the effect of “eroding the moral foundation and self-confidence of the Chinese people.”