A visitor takes photos of a screen monitoring the internet during an exhibition on cyber security in Shanghai in September 2017. Photo: VCG

A Chinese report warned on Monday that most cyber attacks against Chinese networks in 2018 came from the US, which Chinese experts predicted that the latter is preparing to wage a large-scale "cyber war" but China is prepared to launch a strong counterattack.   

The information came from an annual report released by China's National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team (CNCERT) on Monday.

The CNCERT said that in 2018, 14,000 servers in the US infected by a Trojan virus or botnet controlled 3.34 million host computers in China; and the number of servers increased 90.8 percent year-on-year, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

In 2018, 3,325 US IP addresses with the Trojan virus infected 3,607 Chinese websites, an increase of 43 percent compared with 2017, CNCERT said.

Aside from implanting viruses, the US has long been hacking information from the terminals of Chinese customers, and has been utilizing apps to tap, steal information and analyze the information they obtained, a Beijing-based military expert, who also specializes in cybersecurity, told the Global Times on Monday.

The increase of the attacks indicates that the US is preparing larger-scale cyber attacks against China, and could escalate to a "cyber war" to run concurrently with its trade war to prevent China's rapid development, experts said. 

The CNCERT report proves that despite all the accusation from the US that China has been threatening its cybersecurity, the US itself is the biggest cyber attacker, the anonymous expert said.

The US claims that China and Chinese companies pose a threat to US cyber and national security.

In March, Chinese telecom giant Huawei said it suspected that the US government invaded its server. 

The US, being the creator of the internet and initiator of cyber attacks, has top-notch hacking technology, Qin An, head of the Beijing-based Institute of China Cyberspace Strategy, told the Global Times.

The US now has 133 cyber teams and US Army Gen. Paul Nakasone, who also directs the National Security Agency, said in February that he expects more people to join, media reported. 

But China has long prepared for the US, said the anonymous expert, noting that in 2016, China adopted a cybersecurity law that paid great attention to protecting national security and privacy and offered great leeway for security officials and regulators to conduct oversight of the country's massive internet sector. 

The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) drafted a new regulation in May, which states that if acquisitions of products and services disrupt key information infrastructure, or lead to major losses of personal information and important data, or pose other security risks, they must be reported to the CAC's cybersecurity review office.

China has likewise issued cryptosecurity policies, such as banning the use of US-made terminal equipment on certain occasions and places, the expert noted.

China should speed up the development of core internet technologies, and to ease its dependence on US internet technologies soon, observers noted, warning that "if there's a cyber war, the US will meet with China's full-scale fight back."