EDITORIAL : THE GLOBAL TIMES, CHINA

Cyber-defense strength is indispensable

China's plan to build a "cyber blue team" is a training mechanism for national Internet defense, and not a "hacker army" as interpreted by some foreign media, according to the Ministry of Defense. At a time when our daily lives and national security are increasingly linked to the Internet, China should stick to its strategy of enhancing its Internet defense capability.

In the cyber-world, China is at a disadvantage, since none of the world's Internet root servers are located in its territory and little say in domain name management. However, China' capability is often exaggerated. Without substantiated evidence, it is often depicted by overseas media as the culprit for cyber-attacks on the US and Europe. In 2008 and 2009, the Pentagon announced that its website was attacked from China, and it reportedly mulled a counterattack in the real world. The incident was cleared later as two American hackers launched the attack on the Pentagon's website from China.

To some degree, China has been keeping a low profile in developing its Internet defense capability, which leaves room for imagination as to its real purpose and to mistake a few hackers' behavior as being government-backed action. Demonizing China's Internet defense strength is probably part of the US strategy to legitimize its own military expansion. As the US is developing its cyber-attack ability unchecked, China must develop a countering deterrent. Unchecked power will be abused all the same in the Internet world.

Another similar case was the balance of terror in the Cold War era. The matching capacity of nuclear weapons between the US and the USSR helped prevent one party from challenging another's core interests at will. As in the real world, each country has to be reserved from abusing its advantages, it is required that more comprehensive international regulations to be established on the global information system.

No first strikes should be regarded as a preferred rule in the cyber-world. The US has not made the commitment of no first use of its nuclear weapons, but it can set an example in the Internet by upholding this pledge. Though also sharing mutual interest with the US in safeguarding Internet order, China needs to develop its strong cyber defense strength. Otherwise, it would remain at the mercy of others.