China is preparing to carry out high-technology warfare over the Internet and could develop a fourth branch of the armed services devoted to information warfare, according to a Chinese military newspaper.
An article in Thursday's Liberation Army Daily, the official daily newspaper of the People's Liberation Army General Political Department, said Internet warfare should be equated with combat operations for air, land and sea forces.
Finance, commerce, communications, telecommunications and military affairs all rely heavily on the use of cyberspace and are key targets, it stated.
The article, "Bringing Internet Warfare Into the Military System Is of Equal Significance with Land, Sea, and Air Power," was published by the daily in Beijing and was translated by U.S. intelligence agencies.
It is essential to have an all-conquering offensive technology and to develop software and technology for Net offensives so as to be able to launch attacks and countermeasures on the Net, including information-paralyzing software, information-blocking software, and information-deception software," the newspaper stated.
Some of these are like bombs, they are electronic bombs which saturate the enemy's cyberspace," the article stated. Some are like paintings, they are electronic scrawls which appear and disappear on the enemy's pages in chaotic fashion. Some are like phantoms and electronic flying saucers which come and go on the Net and disrupt the enemy's systems, and it is also possible to develop masquerade technology to steal the Internet command power."
A senior Pentagon official said he was notified about the article, which has raised concerns among defense officials who see China's information warfare capabilities as a potential threat to U.S. civilian infrastructures -- computer-run communications, transportation, finance, electrical power networks and other critical services.
Chinese information warfare capabilities also threaten the U.S. military's dominance in high-technology weapons and war fighting.
The Clinton administration recently expressed its concern about the threat of attacks from cyberspace. The administration submitted a budget amendment in September adding $39 million to protect computers.
The threats to the national information infrastructure from hostile states, terrorists, and hackers continue to increase," the White House said in a Sept. 21 statement.
The Chinese military daily said violation of a nation's cyberspace is as serious as violations of national sovereignty by land, water or air.
A 'Net force' is very likely to become another military branch following the army, air force and navy, and it will shoulder the formidable task of protecting Net sovereignty and engaging in Net warfare," the paper said.
To be victorious in the field of information warfare, China will need to obtain "the best technology," the article said.
The tools will include "scanning technology" that "scan the Net, including breaking codes, stealing data, and taking anti-follow-up measures," the report said.
To ensure that Net warfare can play the maximum role in war, it is essential to integrate it with other combat actions," the newspaper said.
Modern high-tech warfare cannot win without the Net, nor can it be won just on the Net. In the future there must be a coordinated land, sea, air, space, electronic and Net warfare, and the state's determination will be fully expressed in this mysterious theater space."
The report said that during a U.S. military exercise several years ago, the Pentagon tested information-warfare technology and demonstrated that "a young lieutenant used an ordinary computer and modem purchased in a shop to successfully break into the Pacific Fleet . . . and also issued orders, masquerading as the fleet commander, without the fleet being at all aware of this and obediently carrying out his orders."
The FBI in May sent out a memorandum warning of Chinese-origin hacker attacks on U.S. systems, including White House, State Department and other government computer networks.
Much of this activity traces back to Chinese addresses, and much of the reporting of this activity comes from official Chinese news sources," the FBI said in the memorandum sent to private security managers. The cyber-attacks followed the May 7 bombing of China's embassy in Belgrade and were viewed by some U.S. national security officials as possible government-sponsored information-warfare attacks on the United States.
William Triplett, co-author of a new book on the PLA, said the Liberation Army Daily article appears to be the first time Beijing officially acknowledged having offensive computer-warfare capabilities.
Mr. Triplett, a longtime China specialist, said the article on information warfare appeared shortly after a Chinese air force general's public comments last week saying China will take the offensive in air power.
All of this offensive-warfare talk, when China is not threatened by anyone, shows that the dragon is at the point where it doesn't have to hide its claws," Mr. Triplett said.
In his book, "Red Dragon Rising," Mr. Triplett said Chinese information-warfare efforts were boosted after President Clinton relaxed controls on supercomputers in 1996. China has since obtained more than 600 machines. The PLA also uses Chinese students trained at American universities for expertise in the field, he said.
According to the book, China could launch a devastating computer-run sabotage operation by attacking U.S. oil refineries, many of which are grouped closely together in areas of Texas, New Jersey and California.
A PLA computer attacker could penetrate the electronic "gate" that controls refinery operations and cause fires or toxic chemical spills that would "cascade" to other refineries in the area, he said.