CCP Cyber Plot Foiled

FBI Director Warns Congress of CCP Cyberattacks

CCP’S CYBER THREAT

A multi-agency operation eradicated Chinese malware embedded in hundreds of devices related to critical infrastructure in the United States this week.

FBI Director Christopher Wray testified before the House that the Chinese Communist Party’s intrusion targeted civilian systems that would directly pose physical harm to American citizens.

FBI Director Christopher Wray (L) arrives to testify during a Congressional full committee hearing on the "The CCP [Chinese Communist Party] Cyber Threat to the American Homeland and National Security" in Washington on Jan. 31, 2024. Julia Nikhinson/AFP via Getty Images

“They’re not focused just on political and military targets,” Wray said.

“Low blows against civilians are part of China’s plan.”

The CCP operation was part of a wider “cyber invasion” of American systems, said Jen Easterly, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

The malware targeted oil and gas pipelines, transportation infrastructure, water and energy sources, and air and port traffic control software.

In the event of a conflict, the malware was designed to wreak havoc throughout the United States as the CCP regime launched military actions including missile attacks.

“Imagine not one pipeline, but many pipelines disrupted,” Easterly said.

“Telecommunications going down so people can’t use their cell phones. People start getting sick from polluted water. Trains get derailed. Air traffic control systems, port control systems are malfunctioning.”

Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) described the Chinese communist plot as “the cyberspace equivalent of placing bombs on American bridges, water treatment facilities, and power plants.”

“There is no economic benefit for these actions. There is no intelligence-gathering rationale,” Mr. Gallagher said.

“The sole purpose is to be ready to destroy American infrastructure, which will inevitably result in mass American casualties.”

—Andrew Thornebrooke

CALLING OUT FORCED ORGAN HARVESTING 

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) put a spotlight on the Chinese regime’s harvesting of organs from persecuted people of faith.

“Tibetan Buddhists and Falun Gong practitioners are placed in forced labor camps, and they have their organs harvested by the Chinese Communist Party,” he said in a speech yesterday.

Religious freedom, he said, is a fundamental human right. 

“When religious freedom is taken away from people, political freedom soon follows,” he said.

“James Madison once said it is conscience that is the most sacred of all property. So if governments shouldn’t steal your property, then they shouldn’t steal your conscience.”

Johnson was at the annual International Religious Freedom Summit in Washington that brought together religious freedom leaders from around the world. 

The brutal act is lucrative. And in China, there’s a vast pool enabling it. Falun Gong, a major target of the abuse, has a community in the tens of millions. 

Experts affiliated with the United Nations have expressed alarm, as has the European Parliament. 

In the United States, members of Congress have tried to take up the cause: an anti-forced organ harvesting bill passed the House in March 2023 with all but two voting in support. 

The bill’s lead sponsor Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) said he’s frustrated to see it on hold at the Senate. 

“It’s a bill whose time has come,” he told The Epoch Times.   

—Eva Fu

TECH CHIEFS GRILLED ON THE HILL 

A contentious Senate Judiciary Committee hearing had Mark Zuckerberg on his feet apologizing to victims of child sex abuse related to their social media activity. 

The leaders of the companies behind Facebook, TikTok, SnapChat, X, and Discord took heated questions from senators about their practices to protect minors from sexual exploitation. Currently, under a law passed during the dial-up era, tech firms like Discord, Meta Platforms, TikTok, Snap, and X Corp aren’t liable for the actions of their users. 

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who was pushing for the Senate to pass any of the bills the committee already endorsed to change that law, told Shou Chew, Jason Citron, Evan Spiegel, Linda Yaccarino, and Zuckerberg that they had “blood on their hands.”

In one fiery exchange during the lengthy hearing, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) harangued Zuckerberg and asked him if he’d ever apologized to any of the families of victims of abuse facilitated by his company’s products. Many were at the hearing and brought portraits of their loved ones. 

Zuckerberg stood up and addressed the audience. 

“We invested so much and are going to continue … efforts to make sure no one has to go through the kinds of things that your families have had to suffer,” Zuckerberg said. 

—Austin Alonzo

WHAT’S HAPPENING

1. President Joe Biden, Speaker Johnson, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries attend the annual prayer breakfast in Washington.
2. Biden then travels to Michigan to meet with workers from the United Auto Workers Union.
3. The Congressional-Executive Commission on China holds a hearing on the real state of human rights in China. The hearing, chaired by Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), follows a United Nations session in which China’s official positions were in stark contrast to the findings of U.N. treaty bodies.

BOOKMARKS

The House yesterday passed a $78 billion package that restores some Trump-era business tax breaks and expands the child tax credit. 

An associate of embattled first son Hunter Biden “had a hard time remembering things” during a deposition, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) announced. The Hill covered the story about Eric Schwerin, who Comer described as a “key central figure in paying all the bills and making sure Hunter Biden wasn’t over drafted in the bank.”

An article by Axios explores a rising political force in politics: the so-called “techno-optimists.” These people, typified by billionaire Elon Musk, generally are involved in tech fields, share certain anti-establishment beliefs, and hang out on X, formerly known as Twitter, which was bought by Musk in 2022. 

The U.S. is pushing Israel to accept a ceasefire agreement that would temporarily suspend hostilities between Israel and Hamas and would make it more difficult to resume the conflict later, The Wall Street Journal reports. It’s unclear whether Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who’s pushed for all-out retaliation against Gaza, would be willing to accept the deal. 

Securing the border has become a higher priority for voters than inflation in recent months amid an unprecedented influx of illegal immigration. That could be bad news for Biden’s reelection efforts, The Epoch Times’ Emel Akan reported. The issue that has become voters’ top priority is also the issue where Biden has the lowest approval. That could be made only worse by the stagnation of a Senate-negotiated border deal in Congress. 

Appeals and legal wrangling are causing delays in several pending criminal cases against former President Donald Trump, Politico reports. These delays will help Trump, who’s seen by most as the presumptive Republican nominee, to favorably bolster his political position.