China placed a bounty on cyberwarriors working for Taiwan’s Defense Ministry, extending its campaign to squeeze President Lai Ching-te.
Police in the southern city of Guangzhou were seeking the arrest of 20 people in Taiwan’s cybersecurity command, the official Xinhua News Agency said on Thursday. A reward of 10,000 yuan ($1789) was offered for each person due to “thousands of large-scale cyberattacks” on government departments and companies in China, Hong Kong and Macau.
Taiwan’s Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command said in a statement that the accusation it conducted such cyberattacks was untrue. Its mission was to protect national defense information and ensure the archipelago’s internet security, the command said.
The bounties are largely symbolic because China has no law-enforcement capabilities in the self-run archipelago of 23 million people and members of Taiwan’s military rarely travel to China. The reward offer does underscore Beijing’s disdain for Lai, who it views as moving to formalize Taiwan’s independence.
Beijing sees Taiwan as one of its provinces, to be brought under its control eventually, by force if that’s what it takes. It has refused to hold high-level talks with the the government in Taipei since Lai’s predecessor, Tsai Ing-wen, declined to acknowledge its stance that the archipelago is part of China.
Instead, Beijing has tried pressuring Lai since his election victory last year, especially with several high-profile military drills. It has also taken steps such as leveling sanctions on Taiwanese political commentators and introducing a law to punish “separatists.”
Taiwan’s government launched the cybersecurity command in 2017, largely to counter what officials in Taipei say is a massive amount of online attacks and other threats from China.
See also: Chinese hacked US Telecom a year before known wireless breaches
In September 2024, China handed a nine-year prison term to a Taiwanese political activist convicted of what it called separatism. The activist, Yang Chih-yuan, was apparently living in China, and Taiwan later warned its people against travel across the strait.
