Chinese Hacker Reveals How He Helped Beijing Steal Secrets From Foreign Governments, Companies

A Chinese hacker has revealed how he conducted cyberattacks on foreign governments, companies, and overseas dissident groups on behalf of the communist regime, blowing the lid off the secretive world of Chinese state-sponsored cyber espionage operations.

The whistleblower, who spoke to The Epoch Times on the condition of anonymity, is a senior cybersecurity officer at a tech firm named Nanjing Anzhiyida Technology Ltd. in eastern China’s Jiangsu Province.

The firm, he said, is controlled behind-the-scenes by senior Chinese officials who use it as a cover to carry out complex cyber intrusions known as “advanced persistent threats” (APT) to steal trade secrets from foreign targets. APT attacks are designed to gain access into a system and stay undetected for a long period of time, pilfering a steady stream of data.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has a “huge demand” for APT operations, creating a “long-standing industrial chain,” the whistleblower said.

“For example, there’re many foreign shipbuilders that have advanced technologies, or the Chinese Academy of Sciences needs some high tech from overseas. They will then work to access their email accounts to take [the information],” he said. The technology “then instantly becomes that of the CCP’s,” he added.

But the company also had a secret business: conducting APT intrusions on a range of targets, operations which the whistleblower was deeply involved with. This work was undertaken under the ultimate direction of the recently-sacked chief of Jiangsu Province’s Political and Legal Affairs Commission (PLAC) Wang Like, he said. The PLAC is a powerful Party agency that oversees the country’s security apparatus, including police, courts, and prisons.

In late October, the regime’s anti-graft body announced it had launched a corruption investigation into Wang, who was also a core member of the Jiangsu Provincial Party Committee. Wang submitted himself to authorities for questioning on Oct. 24, it said.

While Anzhiyida lists its sole shareholder as a person named Jiang Peng, according to company registration records, the company was actually controlled by a 34-year-old woman named Qiu Peipei, who was Wang’s proxy, according to the whistleblower. Qiu’s husband is Liu Bin, the director of the big data command center of Jiangsu’s public security bureau, who also commissioned work through the firm, he added.

Qiu directed the whistleblower to conduct APT attacks targeting foreign governments and businesses, particularly jobs that are too difficult for cyber hackers working in state agencies, he said. These jobs netted the company’s powerful backers huge financial benefits.

“They leave all hard-to-intrude websites to us, where China’s police, national security, or the General Staff Department of the People’s Liberation Army have failed,” he said.

In China, adherents of Falun Gong, a spiritual practice persecuted by the regime, are routinely surveilled, harassed, detained, and imprisoned by authorities in an effort to force them to renounce their faith.

The hackers carried out APT attacks to find out the IP addresses of Falun Gong practitioners, which then could be used to track them down and arrest them.

“Because in China, every broadband connection requires real-name authentication. With someone’s IP address used for surfing, you can find the internet user’s home address, personal information, and mobile phone number,” he said.

The company was also rewarded with a bonus for every Falun Gong practitioner arrested, the whistleblower added.

In addition, the firm was tasked to infiltrate Falun Gong websites, other websites, and email accounts of those critical of the regime, he said. The work was carried out in concert with the Jiangsu Provincial arm of the MSS (known as JSSD) and other cyber firms controlled by JSSD.

The whistleblower said Wang and Liu organized the cyber companies they controlled to create a facial recognition database of Falun Gong practitioners, in anticipation of reaping huge political advantages and financial returns.

Either Liu or Qiu would reach out to them, taking a carrot-and-stick approach to get them to accept the job, using inducements such as: “It’s good for our country,” “You'll be granted an identity: special agent.”

If they resist, then comes the threats, like, “If you don’t do this, you'll end up with an inmate,” the whistleblower said.

He also said that the size of the Chinese regime’s official “hacker army” is not as large as it is rumored.

“The CCP simply cannot afford to hire them, and hackers themselves would not like to work within the system for a long time.”

Weeks later, Xu was extradited to the United States from Belgium on charges of conspiring and attempting to commit economic espionage and steal trade secrets from multiple U.S. aviation and aerospace companies.