China Says It Lacks Skills To Hack US Systems

ScentCone writes "A spokesman for China's foreign ministry says that — China being the 'developing nation' that it is — he doubts that his country has the sophistication to hack foreign systems. This in response to statements by two congressmen regarding apparent probing by China-based crackers into congressional systems for information about communication between US officials and activists in China."

Comments

so..

[Anonymous Coward]

They threaten to hack the universe and boast about hitting powerplants and such.. then a month or two later they get accused of hacking an important computer system and they suddenly don't have the sophistication to do so?

China lacks the skills?

[AmazingRuss]

Lacks the skills to lie convincingly to anybody it doesn't have the power of life or death over, more like.

Re:China lacks the skills?

[tirerim]

Right, because lying in the course of giving compliments, as Americans do as an integral part of our culture, is so much better.

Re:China lacks the skills?

[value_added]

Part of the Chinese culture? That little tradition used to be polite behaviour in the west too.

Not to the extent it is elsewhere.

A friend of mine told me a funny story years ago of his parents when they first arrived in the US. His mother received an invitation from the neighbours for a housewarming dinner. When she arrived, the hostess came up to her and suggested she help herself from the buffet. The conversation proceeded along the following lines:

"No, thank you."

"You really must."

"I'm sorry, but I really shouldn't."

"I insist."

"Thank you for your hospitality, but I really can't."

"Ok. Suit yourself, then."

When his mother returned home in tears, her husband asked her what had happened. She said she had never felt so insulted, and didn't eat a thing. When he asked why she didn't eat anything, she replied, "The hostess didn't insist the third time!"

Re:China lacks the skills?

[eatfastnoodle]

Japanese culture is Heavily influenced by China, You would be amazed by how many Chinese characters there are in Japanese. Chinese who speak no Japanese and Japanese who speak no Chinese can communicate with each other using pen and a piece of paper. As for the statement, They just don't think it's a matter worthy of serious response. Of course they know nobody would believe it, modern Chinese culture are very pragmatic and very goal-oriented, they don't like to infuse too much morality into their discussion. In their view, everybody spies on everybody else, it's just how things work, they didn't whine to CNN or the statement department about CIA spying on China. why did the USãmake such a big deal out of it?

Bald face liars.

[alextheseal]

So who did it then, elves?

Re:Bald face liars.

[InlawBiker]

If a teenager from Seattle can hack WOPPER with an acoustic modem and 8-bit computers....

He then followed...

[MrBippers]

...they generally outsource all their hacking in exchange for WoW gold.

If they're not sophisticated enough

[anglico]

then how did one of their submarines pop up in the middle of one of our Navy carrier groups undetected?

Re:If they're not sophisticated enough

[Mikkeles]

Buoyancy.

Re:If they're not sophisticated enough

[jollyreaper]

then how did one of their submarines pop up in the middle of one of our Navy carrier groups undetected? Buoyancy. With all the lead that goes into the typical Chinese product? Really?

Re:Yeah, right

[hardburn]

Not to mention that a lot of the key mathematics that broke MD5 was done by Chinese cryptographers, among quite a few other mathematical and scientific breakthroughs over the last few years. Saying they don't have the capability is absurd.

Re:South Park defense

[jollyreaper]

How would we, chinese people with leetle leetle penises have the courage to do something like that against big americans with big penises? God, that's the very first line that went through my head when I read the summary. The second line was Americans saying "Aw, shucks, you don't have to be much of a hacker, we don't know anything about system hardening."

Of course, the really ironic thing would be if the Chinese were hacking the American systems to turn them into zombies to spam out ads for penis enlargement pills.

Re:South Park defense

[ivanmarsh]

That is an asshole thing to say, first of all + SouthPark? Imo, @ least, is a show for small minded idiots, period...

The Chinese ARE a great culture with over 5,000 yrs. of recorded history behind them (when the caucasian race was still in caves that people were already culturally & scientifically advanced, by way of comparison), the only OTHER like it, is India, afaik!

I bet the Chinese have a better sense of humor than you.

Re:South Park defense

[gnick]

If each nuclear warhead we have were to kill 125,000 people, they'd still win. I categorically reject your implied definition of "win".

Sun Tzu

[lufo]

18. All warfare is based on deception.
19. Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; [...]

The art of war, Sun Tzu (6th. cent. B.C.), I.18 and 1.19

China holds a trillion dollars of US debt

[Colin Smith]

"Hence to fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting." Said over 2500 years ago. That's before Jesus Christ superstar, btw.

You should all read Sun Tzu and have a bash at playing "Go" as well.

Re:South Park defense

[Anonymous Coward]

"Never argue with a fool, onlookers may not be able to tell the difference." - Mark Twain

Re:Ah, naivety at its finest

[hey!]

American XO: here he comes.
American CO: wait for it ...

[Chinese sub pops to the surface]

American CO (over radio): Lordy! Where do you come from?
Chinese CO: Where did you come from? I hope I am not interrupting anything?
American CO: Oh, nothing important. You sure surprised me, popping up out of nowhere like that!
Chinese CO: Did I? Please excuse me! We had no idea anybody was up here. We're having a little trouble with our engines!
American CO: Do you need help?
Chinese CO: Any chance you could give us a jump?

[American XO and CO exchange looks]

American CO: Uh, sure, can you take 440 volts?
Chinese CO: One moment, I check with engineer...

[sounds of argument in Chinese]

Chinese CO: So sorry. My Engineer says 440 volt no work!
American XO: That's not right, they should have...
American CO (cutting in): Uh, don't you have an operators manual or something?
Chinese CO: Engineer says cook used pages to wrap leftovers. No problem, I fix

[sound of large spanner being whacked against steel hull of sub]

Chinese CO: Hah! Now engines go!
American CO: That's very amazing! You fixed your boat by whacking the hull with a spanner?
Chinese CO: Oh, yes, you know us primitive Chinamen. Our boats are junk! Get it? Junk! Ha ha!
American XO and CO: Ha ha!
Chinese CO: Well engine make go now, so we leave. We be lucky to make back to Hainan without sinking.
American CO: I'll be lucky to make it back to Honolulu without having a heart attack. You took ten years off my life, popping out of nowhere like that! I honestly had no idea there was anybody else in the area.
Chinese CO: Sorry! We not know you here, really. You know Chinaman navigation equipment! No good! We go in straight line until bump into something!
American CO: Sorry to hear that. I hope you stay clear of us, we run into things all the time, since I dropped my sextant.
Chinese CO: Me too, since lousy Chinese boat leak on my chronometer! I go now! Bye!
American CO: Bye!

[Chinese sub submerges]

American CO (under breath): Asshole.
Chinese CO (under breath): Asshole.

Re:South Park defense

[vuffi_raa]

I bet the Chinese have a better sense of humor than you. I am Chinese and I don't find it amusing (the post- not south park- though I think it has gotten really stale as of late).
Honestly there are a lot of us- not just Chinese, but all Asians that get pissed off a lot because it's not okay to use the 'n' word or make black jokes or use derogatory terms for Jews or Hispanics- but I hear Gook and Chink and Slant eyed or and every other term in the book thrown around (my favorite was being called "indian nigger" when I was in the midwest) not to mention the lame assed white guy Chinese accent and it's just fine according to society. Honestly as much as I am not a fan of china (my dad escaped after the revolution) I honestly think it's funny that they are kicking our ass economically and love the fact that Japan and South Korea put our tech to shame because we are so afraid to get our heads out of our asses in this country and take anyone seriously who isn't white.
I couldn't believe the other day I was flipping channels and "mind of mencia" was on and he had some rant about how stupid and dirty chinese people were and seriously, I was really offended. I mean if you were to put any other race in that rant of his most people would be angry, but chinese people *pfft* who cares right? they won't complain, they are a "model minority" because they don't say anything and are good at math (which I am not, really- I work in legal tech but have a degree in fine arts and have taught post graduate studies in design and audio composition and engineering).