Joe Biden has once again given the kid-glove treatment to Communist China after it was revealed that Chinese hackers were behind a damaging hack that impacted oevr 30,000 U.S. organizations and even local governments that was executed earlier this year.
“Your administration is naming and shaming China, but no sanctions,” a reporter said on Monday. “Why? And is that effective enough?”
“They are still determining what happened,” Biden said. “The investigation is not finished.”
The president attempted to leave the press conference, but stayed to answer another question.
“What is the biggest difference between what they’ve done and what Russia’s done in terms of cyber-hacking?” another reporter asked.
“That would take a longer explanation,” Biden said.
“We have all the time in the world,” the reporter objected.
“No, we don’t,” Biden replied. “I have to go see the King of Jordan.”
“Look, to the best of my knowledge, and I am getting a report tomorrow morning on this, a detailed report,” he added. “My understanding is that the Chinese government, not unlike the Russian government, is not doing this themselves, but are protecting those who are doing it.”
This, of course, is a nonsensical statement, and it is likely that he meant to say the reverse of his response. Biden implies that the Russian government is behind the previous hacks on the U.S., but the Chinese are not. This is nonsense. The CCP would not allow hacks without explicit authorization, if not backing.
The Chinese hack, incidentally, was equally as damaging, if not more damaging, than Russian hacks in the past. As The Guardian points out, it impacted tens of thousands of U.S. businesses and even local governments.
“The US has led allies in a sharp condemnation of China for ‘malicious’ cyberattacks, including a hack of Microsoft Exchange email server software that compromised tens of thousands of computers around the world earlier this year,” the Guardian reported.
“The US justice department on Monday charged four Chinese nationals with hacking, as Washington accused Beijing of extortion and threatening national security,” the report continued.
“The Microsoft hack affected at least 30,000 US organisations including local governments as well as entities worldwide and was disclosed in March,” the report added.
On Monday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was asked why Biden did not condemn China more strongly.
“That was not the intention he was trying to project,” Psaki said.
“He continues to feel it’s important to lead from a position of strength in close coordination with our partners and allies around the world, and he takes the malicious cyberactivity, whether it’s from Russia or China, whomever the actors may be, quite seriously,” Psaki said. However, there has not been strong action to back up the White House’s response, which Psaki claimed has been “under [Biden’s] direction.”
Psaki also claimed that economic sanctions would not provide a deterrent against China and other state actors that allow or facilitate cyber-attacks.
“We are not moving fast, we are not allowing any economic circumstance or considerations to prevent us from taking actions were warranted, and also, we reserve the option to take additional actions as well,” she added.
That’s certainly a relief. No one would want to get the impression that the White House is taking it easy on China because of his son Hunter Biden’s lucrative business ties, or the hypothetical dirt that the regime might have on him.
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OPINION: This article contains commentary which reflects the author's opinion.