August 26, 2011: Recently, on a Chinese state-owned TV network, a documentary on hacking appeared. It seemed to be the usual government-approved drivel, except for one six second bit that showed a screen shot of a program that was apparently designed to control attacks on other websites. In this case, it was a Falungong (a religious group that defies the government) website. The Chinese government has been at war with Falungong for twelve years, but has never admitted to making attacks via the Internet. This video clip, showing some software that was several years old, said otherwise. Apparently while the hacking show was being put together, some classified video clips of Chinese Cyber War operations got mixed in with all the other “hacking” stuff available. It looked cool, so the director (probably unemployed at this point) just stuck it in there.

This is all about how the government sees religion as a constant threat. While Chinese are free to worship anyway they want, the government picks religious leaders, and imposes discipline. Thus the ongoing war against Falungong and Tibetan Buddhism. Both of these religions refuse to accept government control and are persecuted. But the persecution has not wiped out these two movements, and this, government officials know, sets a dangerous example for other Chinese. Throughout Chinese history, governments have been overthrown by religious movements, which harnessed and directed mass discontent.

China has consistently denied that it is engaging in offensive Cyber War, but the evidence that they are doing it just keeps building up. These six seconds of video is just another bit of it.