Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with his Chinese counterpart on Thursday in an attempt to restart communications between the two countries and to settle lingering tension.
Their meeting came hours after U.S. officials and Microsoft revealed that the State Department uncovered a Chinese hacking campaign that targeted Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and senior officials at the State Department. Blinken met with PRC Director of the CCP Central Foreign Affairs Office Wang Yi in Jakarta, Indonesia, for 90 minutes, and the hack was one of the subjects they touched on, Bloomberg reported.
KEVIN MCCARTHY SCORES $21.7 MILLION SECOND QUARTER FUNDRAISING HAUL
The hack began on May 15 and went undetected until June 16, only days before Blinken traveled to Beijing for in-person meetings with his Chinese counterparts.
Microsoft said a Chinese hacking group was responsible for gaining access to email accounts affecting approximately 25 organizations, including government agencies, while State Department spokesman Matthew Miller would not confirm China’s culpability, though he noted the department did not have evidence to refute the claim either.
“The threat actor Microsoft links to this incident is an adversary based in China that Microsoft calls Storm-0558,” Microsoft’s statement said. “We assess this adversary is focused on espionage, such as gaining access to email systems for intelligence collection. This type of espionage-motivated adversary seeks to abuse credentials and gain access to data residing in sensitive systems.”
The incident is still under investigation, Miller noted, prompting his refusal to provide details on the matter.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
President Joe Biden and his administration have worked for months to reset U.S.-Beijing relations due to a souring of those ties following military aggression by the Chinese in the Pacific region, the Chinese spy balloon, human rights concerns, and other issues.
“The meeting was part of ongoing efforts to maintain open channels of communication to clarify U.S. interests across a wide range of issues and to responsibly manage competition by reducing the risk of misperception and miscalculation. This is what the world expects of the United States and the PRC,” Miller said in a readout of the meeting. “The Secretary and Director Wang had candid and constructive discussions on a range of bilateral, regional, and global issues, including on areas of difference and potential areas of cooperation.”
