A decade of complacency has left the critical infrastructure of the U.S. vulnerable to cyberattacks that should have been anticipated, according to author and China analyst Gordon Chang.
"Clearly China sees the United States as an enemy, and they declared a people's war on us in May of 2019. For decades they have been probing and attacking our networks, so this should come as no surprise," Chang told "Ed Henry The Briefing" on the Newsmax2 streaming platform.
FBI Director Christopher Wrap told lawmakers Wednesday that "China's hackers are positioning on American infrastructure in preparation to wreak havoc and cause real-world harm to American citizens and communities, if or when China decides the time has come to strike."
While Chang praised Wray for those remarks, Chang noted the FBI has long been aware of China's propensity for cyber mischief and has done little to mitigate it.
"I'm glad that the FBI director said this, but you've got to remember, part of China has become emboldened," said Chang, author author of "The Coming Collapse of China." "If we go back to November 2014, the North Korean hack of Sony Pictures Entertainment ... those hacks were launched from Chinese soil.
"We have let the Chinese believe that they can do what they want. Now we have no choice but to stop that."
The threat is not just from China, as Chang cited numerous attacks in 2023 from Iran and as far back as 2021 when Russian ransomware attackers shut down the Colonial pipeline and disrupted the flow of petroleum to gas stations and airlines.
"This is something that we've already seen," Chang said.
Show host Ed Henry noted that the U.S. would be ill-prepared to deal with a massive cyber confrontation, as Chinese hackers would outnumber FBI countermeasures 50-1.
Change said U.S. hesitancy to stop China starts at the top, noting that in a November meeting in San Francisco with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Biden declined to bring up the subject of Chinese cyberattacks.
"It sends a message throughout the American bureaucracy that this is not a big deal," Chang said.
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