China Charges U.S. with Cyber Espionage on National Time Center
China has accused the United States of hacking into its National Time Service Center and stealing classified information that could have disrupted the country’s communication networks, financial systems, power supply, and international standard time management, Reuters reported.
In a statement released on WeChat on Sunday, China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS) said the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) had been conducting long-term cyberattacks against the research institution. According to the investigation, since 2022, the American agency had allegedly used stolen data and access credentials to surveil the mobile devices and network systems of the center’s staff.
Beijing also alleged that the U.S. exploited vulnerabilities in the messaging services of a foreign smartphone brand for espionage, though the name of the brand was not disclosed.
The National Time Service Center, under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, is responsible for generating and broadcasting China’s official standard time. The ministry claimed that the United States made further attempts in 2023 and 2024 to infiltrate the center’s internal networks and high-precision timing systems.
The U.S. Embassy in Beijing has not commented on the matter. In recent years, China and the United States have repeatedly exchanged accusations of cyber espionage against each other, adding new dimensions to their ongoing trade and technological tensions.
