China Removes Cyberwar Video, Denies Everything 179
jjp9999 writes "Anyone looking for the video clip showing the Chinese regime launching cyberattacks using script kiddie tactics was greeted with a message stating 'Error Page — This page does not exist anymore,' on the state-run TV website. The propaganda video, still available on YouTube, included a clip showing an unseen user launching a cyberattack against an Alabama-based website of the Falun Gong meditation practice. China's Defense Minister told the Washington Post via e-mail that the video was 'pure action of the producer,' adding that the 'Chinese military has never implemented any form of cyber attacks.' The statement is the common line given by the regime after they're tacked with launching a global cyberattack — including after GhostNet, Operation Aurora, Operation Night Dragon, and Operation Shady Rat were revealed."
Re:Ugh, God, seriously China? (Score:4, Interesting)
There's no comparison between the US and Chinese governments. Heck, I know a girl whose family is well connected politically in China and even she doesn't want to deal with the Chinese government. It's just far too corrupt and everyone only cares about themselves. The government is completely opaque and it's ridiculously easy to embezzle public money due to the lack of accountability and openness. And that's at the national level, at the local level it's even worse, especially in the countryside.
Just for one specific example, a drunk guy ran over and killed a couple of women late at night. When the police showed up, he said he was the mayor's son so what were they going to do about it. Fortunately, someone got it on video and it caused the people to protest and force him to go to jail (and for his father to apologize). But that guy's attitude is pervasive in the Chinese government's upper levels, with political power tending to pass from one generation to the next and having the ability to do almost anything and get away with it.
Re:Ugh, God, seriously China? (Score:2, Interesting)
You hit upon something I'm still pondering, which is the close connection of this absurd 'deny everything' policy of the Chinese government and the culture. I know plenty of Chinese nationals(I work with them remotely every day) and on an individual and personal level, their actions mirror mine: no tolerance for bullshit, responsibility, integrity and genuine goodwill for other people. I love and respect each one of them. But somehow their minds almost categorically do mental back flips when things become abstracted out to the government, to the family, or to the nation. They become these xenophobic robots and their brains short circuit when they can't resolve the contradictions that condemn the hierarchy above them. It generates the kind of behavior that we are seeing now.
Personally, I find there is at least one good thing about it. It offers us a chance at reflection, to see how we behave similarly. Witnessing this sort of tribalism from the outside is a good lesson for us. Not just our government(which most everyone knows is fucked) but the US society itself.