Updated Sept. 23, 2024, at 4:19 p.m. ET
China’s ministry of state security on Monday accused the Taiwanese military of supporting a hacking group called Anonymous 64 that it said was responsible for cyberattacks against Chinese targets.
"This year 'Anonymous 64' has frequently launched cyberattacks against mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau, trying to obtain control rights to relevant websites, outdoor electronic screens, and online televisions, and afterwards illegally upload content disparaging the mainland's political system and major policies," the ministry said in a statement on WeChat.
The ministry, which is responsible for counterintelligence and political security, said that it launched an in-depth investigation into the hacking group’s activities and found that Anonymous 64 was “not a normal hackers’ group but a cyber-army supported by Taiwan independence forces.”
“Taiwan independence forces” is a term often used by Chinese officials to describe the Taiwanese government and military.
The Chinese state security ministry said it had filed a case against three active members of the Taiwanese military’s cyberwarfare command, known as the Information, Communications, and Electronic Force, or ICEFCOM, who are directly involved with Anonymous 64.
ICEFCOM’s spokesperson, Col. Hu Jin-long, denied the accusation and instead accused China of endangering regional peace and security.
Hu said in a statement that the command’s main responsibilities were to maintain the military’s online networks and communications.
“The current hostile situation and cyber threats are serious,” he said.
It was the Chinese military and other forces that “continue to use aircraft, ships and cyberattacks to harass Taiwan and are the originators of undermining regional peace,” Hu added.
What is Anonymous 64?
China considers Taiwan a Chinese province that should be reunited with the mainland, by force if necessary.
Colonel Hu Jin-long, spokesman for Taiwan’s Cyber Army Command, also refuted the Chinese accusations, stating that the Cyber Army’s Cyber Warfare Brigade “is responsible for executing national defense information and cybersecurity maintenance tasks.
“The claims made by the mainland are unfounded,” he said.
The group called Anonymous is generally known as a decentralized international hacker-activist movement. Its members have been reportedly involved in a number of cyberattacks on governments and large corporations.
RFA is not able to verify whether Anonymous 64 is a member of the Anonymous movement.
Anonymous 64 has an account on X, formerly known as Twitter, that was set up in June last year, showing screenshots of its campaigns to broadcast videos commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and pictures criticizing President Xi Jinping on websites of various Chinese media and universities, as well as public TV screens.
It also reposted several links to reports by Radio Free Asia and for some Chinese activists.
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This isn’t the first time China has explicitly named Taiwan’s military in a case like this, according to Dong Li-wen, a member of the advisory committee for Taiwan Thinktank.
In 2008, China publicized the name of a captain from Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense’s Military Intelligence Bureau, accusing the officer of conducting cyberattacks against the CCP while stationed in Moscow.
“They have previously made this kind of accusation. Taiwan must be vigilant against the CCP’s intelligence operations. Obviously, the relevant departments of the Taiwanese military must re-evaluate their confidentiality mechanism and consider restructuring.”
‘Politics of fear’
The incident is another effort by China at driving a wedge between the Taiwanese people and their government, said Ye Yao-yuan, a lecturer in International Studies at the University of St. Thomas in the U.S.
Yet he pointed out that China’s public disclosure of the three officers’ names could have been worse. They could have been arrested in China the next time they visited the country, he said.
“The CCP engages in a lot of politics of fear. You may not know you’re on the blacklist, and only realize it when you visit China,” he said.
Based on his own observation, Ye doesn’t think the “Anonymous 64” is related to Taiwan but more likely overseas Chinese.
“Strictly speaking, this is another example of the CCP’s cognitive warfare. Internally, it tells the Chinese public that Taiwan is using state power to spread disinformation and smear the CCP.
“On the other hand, it sabotages the credibility of the Taiwanese government and blames the so-called ‘independence government’ for China’s problems,” Ye said. “Logically and realistically, it is very unlikely that Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense would be involved in this kind of activity.”
Edited by Mike Firn and Matt Reed.
This story has been updated to add comments from the spokesman for Taiwan's Cyber Army command and two other sources.