China warned Britain today (Wednesday) against “tarnishing its image,” the day after a report was issued stating that Beijing may be planning to carry out cyber operations using artificial intelligence to target vital infrastructure in the United Kingdom.
The British National Cyber Security Center report stated, “By 2028, it is highly likely that China, Russia, and other countries will regularly use artificial intelligence-based cyber capabilities to achieve their geopolitical goals, with the United Kingdom facing an increase in the volume and speed of sophisticated cyber attacks.”
The report added, “China likely has the intention, and is the best positioned party, to use artificial intelligence in operations targeting vital national infrastructure and other strategic objectives.” The Chinese Foreign Ministry responded today (Wednesday) to the report, saying that Britain “has always politicized the issue of cybersecurity,” according to what Agence France-Presse reported.
Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said during a press conference, in response to a question about the report: “China expresses its deep concern about the United Kingdom’s use of language based on speculation, to distort China’s image in the absence of evidence.” She added that Britain is "again using the pretext of old electronic hacks to impose new measures aimed at curbing China's development of artificial intelligence technologies," describing this as a "misleading approach."
Over the past decade, countries such as Britain, the United States, and New Zealand have publicly accused China of being behind electronic hackings, accusations that Beijing has strongly denied.
China announced today (Wednesday) that it is “ready to continue working” with the United States after the midterm elections in which the Republican Party, led by President Donald Trump, lost control of the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said during a regular press briefing: “The midterm elections are an American internal matter. China is ready to continue working with the United States to uphold and implement the important understandings reached by the presidents of the two countries, enhance communication, properly manage differences, expand cooperation, and build strategically constructive and stable Chinese-American relations, based on the principles of respect, fairness, and reciprocity,” according to Agence France-Presse.
The Democrats achieved a victory that gave them control of Congress, both the House of Representatives and the Senate, in a decisive rejection of the Republicans’ performance in governance in Washington, and marking the beginning of a new phase of opposition within Congress to President Donald Trump.
Tuesday's midterm elections revealed voters' deep dissatisfaction with rising prices, the war in Iran, and concerns about government corruption.
Democrats achieved landslide victories over their rivals across the country, seizing states that had been voting Republican for decades, and which Trump had won just two years ago by a margin of more than 10 percentage points.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un pledged to build “the most advanced and powerful warships,” during an inspection tour of a shipyard, according to North Korean Central News Agency, while the South Korean army announced today (Wednesday) that North Korea had fired an unspecified projectile into the sea off its eastern coast.
The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a brief statement: “North Korea fired an unspecified projectile towards the East Sea,” referring to the body of water also known as the Sea of Japan.
North Korea's Central Agency reported that Kim inspected the Namphu Shipyard on Monday, where North Korea is working to build a new warship.
North Korea, which possesses nuclear weapons, is working to modernize its naval forces at an accelerated pace, bringing into service destroyers weighing 5,000 tons and conducting tests on ship-launched missiles. Kim also pledged to arm the fleet with nuclear weapons, and to build larger warships, weighing up to 10,000 tons.
Pyongyang says this expansion is necessary to confront threats from the United States and South Korea, at a time when it is developing weapons aimed at expanding the scope of its military influence beyond the capabilities of its traditional coastal navy.
The Korean Central News Agency quoted Kim as saying that “the recently emerging geopolitical environment and the hostile actions carried out by opponents” confirm “the need to possess the most advanced and powerful warships.”
He added that the warship under construction is equipped with “a combat system that has operational capabilities that no other country in the world possesses,” stressing the necessity of “defending the homeland, ensuring sovereignty, and deterring all threats.”
