Chinese computer hackers who have defaced U.S. Web sites to protest last month's downing of a Chinese warplane have prompted a response from American hackers as the online war of words has escalated along with diplomatic tensions between the two superpowers.
The rift between the two countries also might be responsible for interrupting a huge high-tech deal between China's biggest telecom companies and a passel of foreign equipment suppliers.
Chinese hackers have stepped up their attacks this week, which is packed with historically significant dates such as the May Day workers holiday and the May 7 anniversary of NATO's bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. The attacks are expected to peak Friday – the anniversary of an international treaty that ceded Germany's concession in China to Japan, humiliating Asia's largest country on the global stage.
In a display of loosely organized patriotism, the hackers have posted Chinese flags and photos of Wang Wei, the fighter pilot lost at sea and presumed dead, to prominent U.S. sites. The New York Times Web site was hit, as was a White House site.
American hackers, not known for their political activism, have retaliated. A Web site operated by a Chinese provincial government tourist group was marred with a threat to escalate attacks on Chinese government sites. "For every .gov you do," the hackers taunted, "we will do 5 gov.cns," referring to the domain ending Chinese sites use.
"The story is ramping up here," said Eric Ogren, VP of marketing for Massachusetts-based security firm Okena. "We are getting more calls. People are waking up and thinking, 'Why are we getting hacked?' "
Chinese hackers publicly announced that they had chosen this week for its string of important dates to step up their online agitprop. Friday's anniversary, known as Youth Day in China, still resounds with emotion even though the event occurred more than eight decades ago.
On May 4, 1919, the Versailles Treaty, which formally ended World War I, gave Japan control of Germany's colony in China. The act left the Chinese humiliated, sparked student protests for democracy and modernization, and set the stage for Japan's attempt to conquer the country.
"May 4 still means a lot to Chinese intellectuals," said Joseph Cheng, a professor at City University in Hong Kong. "The parallels to today are that China cannot defend itself unless it becomes strong, and many feel that the U.S. is trying to prevent it from doing that."
The tension between the two countries also might have scuttled a major business deal that would have given foreign high-tech businesses lucrative stakes in the Chinese market.
China Unicom, the country's second-largest telecommunications company, canceled plans to sign a long-negotiated $1.7 billion deal with foreign equipment providers including Samsung, Motorola, Nortel Networks, Lucent Technologies and Ericsson.
The companies were supposed to contribute to the building of a vast CDMA-standard mobile network in China, where the GSM standard is most widely used. San Diego-based Qualcomm would be one of the biggest beneficiaries if the network were built.
When the Chinese embassy in Belgrade was bombed in 1999, China Unicom stalled discussions on the same deal for six months.
