BEIJING - As tensions build between Washington and Beijing over cyberattacks, with a growing body of evidence that much of the hacking is coming from China and that the United States is a major target, as The New York Times has reported, are Chinese-Americans feeling the pressure Are they concerned that growing suspicions about China’s intentions toward the United States may cause them to suffer greater discrimination
Even as I was interviewing Frank H. Wu, a prominent Chinese-American and legal scholar, on this topic Thursday morning, reports were coming in from South Korea of cyberattacks there that lamed banks and broadcasters. Some reports said the attacks may have originated from a Chinese server. (Mr. Wu, dean of the University of California’s Hastings College of the Law, has written books on race and human rights and is a member of the Committee of 100, an influential Chinese-American group that aims “to encourage constructive relations between the peoples of the United States and Greater China,†as it says on its Web site. He spoke from San Francisco via Skype. Mr. Wu, who was born in the United States, describes himself as a “loyal American.â€)
Of course, the reports of the possible involvement of a China-based server do not necessarily mean that China was behind the attack in South Korea. In fact, as my colleague Choe Sang-hun wrote from Seoul, the greatest suspicion rests on North Korea. But it served to highlight the issue since South Korea is a U.S. ally and North Korea is close to China, while some North Korean hackers are believed to be close to Chinese hackers.
The rhetoric over cyberhacking is growing tougher, with the White House demanding that the Chinese government stop the widespread theft of data from American computer networks and agree to “acceptable norms of behavior in cyberspace,†as my colleagues Mark Landler and David E. Sanger reported.
So how does a prominent Chinese-American view the issue Here are edited excerpts from my interview with Mr. Wu:
DKT: How do you understand what’s going on here with this cyberhacking situation
FW: The threat of cyberattack is very serious and it’s difficult for lay people to understand the technological aspects of course, but it’s easy enough to grasp the basic idea: that people who are up to no good are choosing high-tech tools essentially to break into secure systems of major American corporations and even possibly the U.S. government.
The Chinese aspect of the threat appears now to be reasonably well documented. Not all attacks are coming from China, some may be coming from Russia or Iran or elsewhere, some may be from the U.S., some may be teenagers who have no particular purpose. But there seems to be enough evidence that some significant part of the cybersecurity threat emanates from China and there are very strong hints that it is not just teenagers out to have fun, but that it may well be an organized effort, possibly with relationships to Chinese government entities, so this is of course very worrisome.
Q: Do you feel the cybersecurity issue is having an impact on Chinese-Americans, or could it in the future
A: Thank goodness in the current controversy there has not yet been very much racial imagery or stereotyping. The cyberthreat however is the perfect scenario for scapegoating a Chinese-American. It’s perfect because China looms large as an economic or even military threat in the eyes of many Americans, and cyberattack fits perfectly with the stereotype of Chinese and Asians generally as not only untrustworthy, but also technologically talented. If you had to pick an image of how an Asian nation might attack the United States, technology would be an image that comes to mind easily.
Q: What can Chinese-Americans do to counter the development of a negative perception
A: Actually Chinese-Americans are the perfect community for the U.S. to rely on in responding to these issues. The Committee of 100 was formed in the belief that Chinese-Americans are uniquely situated in a bridge-building role, as people with Chinese ancestry with some understanding of Chinese culture but as loyal American citizens. That combination allows people to be citizen diplomats, to facilitate understanding, to help ensure that dialogue is possible and remains productive and thoughtful.
For Chinese-Americans, there is a long history of doubt about their loyalty, though there have been Chinese-Americans in the U.S. in significant numbers starting as early as the 1830s. … There are fifth-generation Chinese-Americans, Chinese-American blacks and Mexicans. Starting in the 1980s, so maybe a generation after the laws [ending ethnic discrimination in immigration, in 1965] were passed, a mainland Chinese influx began. And that’s altogether a different population. So Chinese migration to the U.S. has come in different waves with different identities and into different Americas. You know America has become multicultural. Today there is no single Chinese-American community. Chinese-Americans form very many separate communities, partly based on Mandarin or Cantonese, partly based on whether they’re professional or working-class, still based on people’s views about Communism.
Q: What’s your message to the hackers
A: Chinese hackers should not be doing what they’re doing. I doubt that the opinions of Chinese-Americans will influence them. They probably are only barely aware of the existence of Chinese-Americans. But on cybersecurity, if I were to generalize, I would say the Chinese-American view of cybersecurity is quite similar to the general American view. Chinese attacks on U.S. institutions through the Internet and other technological means should stop.
But Chinese-Americans have a particular concern, different from other Americans. That concern is that Chinese-Americans, regardless of their loyalty or how many generations their families have been in the U.S., or how assimilated they are, will be blamed wrongly for the actions of foreign individuals with whom we have no relationship.
