China's Hack Provides Valuable Insights Ahead of Blinken's Beijing Visit, Says Biden Administration

The Biden administration believes that a Chinese hacking operation, which breached US government email systems including the State Department, provided China with insights into US thinking ahead of Secretary of State Antony Blinken's visit to Beijing in June. The hack, discovered around the same time as Blinken's visit, highlights the complexities of modern diplomacy and the ongoing tensions between the two countries. US officials have consistently labeled China as the most advanced adversary in cyberspace, with the FBI stating that Beijing has a larger hacking program than all other governments combined. China has routinely denied these allegations. The hack only breached an unclassified system, limiting the amount of information China could access, but it still provided additional knowledge from private discussions of US officials.