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The US Defense Department's latest cyber security strategy fully exposes its plan to form a "cyber NATO" and its accusation against China is "like a thief crying stop thief" as the US itself is known for its "surveillance empire," analysts said.

The Pentagon on Tuesday unveiled an unclassified version of its updated cyber security strategy, titled 2023 Cyber Strategy, in which it calls for the country's cyber forces to seek out and engage "adversaries" including China and Russia, to minimize threats to the US, American media reports said.

In the strategy, China was mentioned more than 20 times and listed as one of the US' "adversaries" that seek to use "malicious cyberattacks to achieve asymmetric advantages." It also claimed that China "poses a broad and pervasive cyber espionage threat."

But the US is like a thief who is crying stop thief as it is itself the initiator of cyber wars, Qin An, deputy director of the expert committee of counter-terrorism and cybersecurity governance at the China Society of Police Law, told the Global Times.

The US' recent narrative in hyping threats to cybersecurity from China and Russia is an upgraded version of its previous smearing of China. After the US withdrew its troops from Afghanistan in 2021, it set a plan for cyber wars targeting China and Russia, said Qin.

The US has long been criticized for using its hegemony in cyberspace and cyber capabilities in hybrid warfare to maintain its hegemony, analysts said. It has also been exposed for committing various crimes targeting other sovereign countries, revealing its "surveillance empire," they said.

The US is working to invite more allies to form a "cyber NATO" and is making more efforts in using cybersecurity or other excuses to interfere with other countries' domestic affairs, said Qin.

In recent years, China has reported a rise in cases of cyberattacks by the US. For example, on July 26, the Wuhan Earthquake Monitoring Center reported that some front-end station collection points for earthquake reporting data had been implanted with backdoor programs. A joint investment team formed by the National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center and Chinese cybersecurity company 360 discovered malicious backdoor software that exhibits characteristics of US intelligence agencies.

The US' cyber strategy also contains the main attacking methods it adopts in new warfare targeting China and Russia and it also highlights the need to be vigilant, Qin warned.

The US should also know that intensifying cyber warfare against others is like opening a Pandora's box and the US itself would also have to face the consequences, said the expert.