Republicans urge Trump admin to launch offensive cyber operations against China

A coalition of Senate Republicans asked the Trump administration to launch offensive cyber operations against China, citing recent prominent intrusions into swaths of sensitive U.S. networks that were conducted by China-linked hacking groups.

In a Tuesday letter led by Sens. Shelley Moore Capito, W. Va., and Roger Wicker, Miss., GOP lawmakers asked President Donald Trump and his top national security officials “to take strong, decisive action to secure America’s critical networks from [People’s Republic of China] threats.”

“We possess the most powerful offensive cyber systems in the world, and when an adversary attacks our people, government, and critical infrastructure, there must be an appropriate response,” they wrote.

The missive references recent Chinese intelligence-backed infiltrations into U.S. telecommunications networks, known as the Salt Typhoon hacks, which affected at least nine American telecom operators and dozens of others around the world.

It also references a separate incident where a China-tied hacking unit, Silk Typhoon, accessed Treasury Department systems late last year, including its sanctioning and assets control offices, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. and former Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s computer. They also detailed a 2023 case where China accessed the email inboxes of top Commerce and State Department officials. 

The lawmakers do not outline exact steps that should be taken or what agencies should take the lead on these operations. The National Security Council did not respond to a request for comment by publishing time.

A handful of American intelligence and defense elements, like the National Security Agency and Cyber Command, have authority to hack into adversaries’ networks, though much of their activities are clandestine and are not made known to the public.

In crafting a plan to establish these types of hacking activities, the Trump administration would likely have to define target sets for U.S. cyber warriors to attack. That may include infrastructure used by civilians that does not possess any immediate intelligence value.

China’s Volt Typhoon collective, among the most prominent of Chinese intelligence hacker units, has done just that. The group has often used stolen credentials to target various types of civilian critical infrastructure around the country, including ports, power grids and water treatment plants. 

Officials like National Security Advisor Mike Waltz have publicly said Volt Typhoon is putting cyber time bombs into this infrastructure so that they can be disabled and cause societal panic — like in the event that China launches an invasion of Taiwan — in an effort to distract the American public from activities in the Taiwan Strait.

In January, former NSC cybersecurity and emerging tech official Anne Neuberger told Politico that the Biden administration had conducted non-public offensive cyber activities against nations that targeted U.S. critical infrastructure.

“Offensive operations occur in a classified manner … but we work actively to disable malicious infrastructure around the world, to find and expose adversary capabilities and to make cyberspace safer, using offensive capabilities,” she said.

“China remains steadfast in combating cyber attacks in accordance with the law. We urge the US side to refrain from using cybersecurity issues as a tool to smear China,” a spokesperson for China's embassy in Washington, D.C. said in a statement.

Editor's note: This article has been updated to include comment from the Chinese embassy.