Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

The US government and its allies from Europe and the Asia-Pacific accused China of a global cyber hacking campaign that employed contract hackers. Chinese embassies and representatives in several countries and international organizations have asked the accusers to provide evidence of Chinese government support for cyberattacks. None of them has been able to present evidence to the world. This is an unprecedentedly groundless accusation.

The US and its major allies have engaged in a very shameless pattern of systematic smears against China in recent years. Washington's routine way is putting a vicious label on China and then asking China to prove itself innocent, or arrogantly calling for an "independent investigation" in China. People familiar with the internet know that this is a very common rogue-style public opinion attack. They are often not to solve the problem, but a carefully planned plot. The purpose is to frame the accused.

The US has put on too many labels on China but provided too little evidence to support its accusations. Washington dares to do so because the US and the West, though only a small fraction of the world's population, have a strong grip on public opinion. The second is that the US relies on a system of alliances, which often shields it even if the US lies. Third, the US has a "shameless" system, and its internal interests are cut off from international justice to a great extent. These conditions support a large number of the US' lies against China.

The internet is the most complex new territory of human activity, with the most advanced technological applications, the most complex groups of users and the most challenging behavior mode. When the real and virtual mingle with each other, human cognition of the internet is also constantly updated. Aggressiveness is a natural part of the internet, and too many people and institutions have been attacked and harassed from deep within the internet. Identifying those attacks is by no means an easy task. 

The US is no doubt the country that most brutally abuses power when it comes to defining cyber attacks. It is the most technologically capable country in the world, and most of the internet's root servers are in the US. But it is also the country that makes the most noise about cyber attacks. They arbitrarily accuse countries like China and Russia of cyber attacks as the average person has no ability to verify their allegations and that attacking China and Russia is politically correct in the US, so they can say pretty much whatever they want.

Asking China to prove its innocence or conduct an investigation in China based on the presumption of guilt, if the process starts, won't protect China's reputation. Instead, it will only bring endless humiliation to China, and create a huge trap to smear China under the opinion sphere dominated by the West. So, Chinese will by no means be led by the nose by the US, naively believing that we can argue with Washington for a clear result. 

We support China's embassies to raise the request with hosting countries, asking them to show evidence. Whoever raises the charge has the burden of proof. China has no obligation to open its doors and allow the team under US geopolitical influence to conduct a so-called "independent investigation" that presumes China is guilty. 

The China-US competition will not be decided by which side is more able to make accusations. A strong US is not made by scolding other countries. If today's US wants to keep its strength by scolding and framing another major country, history will teach it a lesson.