Nicholas Burns, the U.S. ambassador to China, was among the many government officials who have had their email accounts breached by Chinese hackers, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Hundreds of thousands of inboxes have been targeted in the hacks likely affiliated with China’s military and spy services, including those of Burns and Daniel Kritenbrink, the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs. It was revealed last week that the email account of Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo — one of the more outspoken China critics in the administration — was also hacked. Raimondo and her staff are attempting to place export controls on China to prevent its military from accessing American technology.
It does not appear that Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s account was hacked. However, Kritenbrink accompanied Blinken on his trip to China and led a trip of other officials that laid the groundwork for the secretary’s trip.
Blinken, Kritenbrink, and Burns all attended meetings with senior Chinese officials and with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
According to a preliminary investigation, no classified information was accessed. However, hackers may have gleaned inside information about the increasing number of trips to China that Biden officials have made, as well as internal conversations about U.S. policies towards China.
The hacks that targeted the State and Commerce Departments were surgical in nature and unlike previous, much broader Russian-intelligence breaches.
Republicans have pointed to the hacks as reason enough for the Biden administration to stop pursuing a thaw with China. They’ve also pointed to many other incidents, such as the spy balloon and the close cooperation between China and Cuba.
Presidential candidate Nikki Haley urged the administration to change its approach in response to the news.
“To Joe Biden, Janet Yellen, John Kerry, & all the people who think we can befriend China, pay attention,” wrote Haley on Twitter. “China is not our friend. China is our enemy. It’s time to wake up & start acting like it.”
The U.S. has not formally declared China responsible for the attacks, likely because it does not want to upset ongoing talks. However, national-security adviser Jake Sullivan said over the weekend that the administration has no reason to doubt Microsoft’s assessment, which ascribed the attack to a China-based entity called Storm-0558.