WASHINGTON – China is trying to rewrite norms that it perceives do nottrend in its favour and showing worrying tendency to challenge the existingrules-based order from which it has been a major beneficiary, a top UScommander has said.

Officials in congressional testimony had earlier asserted that there hadbeen a reduction in cyber thefts.

Commander of the US Cyber Command Admiral Michael S Rogers, in histestimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday said, “Chinahas shown a worrying tendency to challenge the existing rules-based order,from which it has been a major beneficiary.

“It is pursuing its economic and diplomatic interests with greaterassertiveness, rejecting, ignoring, or trying to rewrite norms that itperceives do not trend in its favour,” he said.

Rogers said that China’s behaviour in cyberspace exemplifies this trend.

For example, former US president Barack Obama and Chinese President XiJinping committed in 2015 that the two countries would not conduct orknowingly support cyber-enabled theft of intellectual property forcommercial gain, he said.

“Subsequent evidence, however, suggests that hackers based in Chinasustained cyber espionage that exploited the business secrets andintellectual property of American businesses, universities, and defenseindustries,” Rogers told the Committee.

The Justice Department just last fall unsealed indictments against threeChinese nationals, alleging they exfiltrated more than 400GB of data fromseveral companies in the United States, he added.

“In addition, the Chinese government could exploit the production ofinformation and technology products to harvest corporate, government, andeven personal data from foreign countries,” Rogers said.