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The Anonymous hacker group took a break from the cyber war in Russia and hacked Chengdu Chinese Communist Party (CCP) website warning Beijing to “not try anything stupid against Taiwan” in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The collective hacked the website of the Chengdu Pidu District Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, according to a post on 2 May.
In a new HTML page created on the website, Anonymous included its logo, followed by a photo of a person wearing a black hoodie and Guy Fawkes mask.
The "Taiwan Numbah Wan!" meme appears, which is a reference to a famous quote by video game streamer "AngryPug" in 2015 to antagonise Chinese streamer "Em0" during a match in the computer game "H1Z1".
The hacker group then stated that it is taking a "short break" from its cyber war on Russia to "remind China to not try anything stupid against Taiwan".
It pointed out that since the Russian invasion began, it has launched numerous attacks on Russian government and state-run media websites, industrial control systems, and hundreds of surveillance cameras.
Alluding to Anonymous member "Cyber Anakin's" five-day hack into Chinese computer systems, including nuclear power plant interfaces, it mentioned a "souvenir" he had left for China.
The defaced page included the flags of Tibet, Taiwan, East Turkestan, Southern Mongolia, and the Black Bauhinia flag, as well as a memorial for Li Wenliang and notable people who died from COVID.
The CCP website that was the subject of the defacement quickly went offline and as of publication, the site is still inoperable.
The collective warned the CCP that if it does not want Chinese aircraft carrier the Liaoning to go the way of Russia's sunken cruiser the Moskva or have its computer systems get the "hard treatment like Russia", it must adhere to the following demands:
Taiwan has complained for the past two years about frequent Chinese military activity near it, mostly concentrated in the southern and south-western part of the island's air defence identification zone, or ADIZ.
According to Reuters, China's armed forces carried out another round of exercises near Taiwan last week to improve joint combat operations, after the Chinese-claimed island reported a spike in activity.
Taiwan's air force scrambled planes on Friday to warn away 18 Chinese aircraft that entered its air defence zone, and reported further incursions on Saturday and Sunday, though with fewer aircraft.
In a statement, the People's Liberation Army's Eastern Theatre Command outlined that naval and air force assets carried out drills from Friday to Sunday to the east and south-west of Taiwan to "further test and improve the joint combat capability of multiple services and arms", but did not elaborate further.
Taiwan's Defence Ministry reported that China deployed bombers, fighters and anti-submarine aircraft.
No shots were fired and the Chinese aircraft had not been flying in Taiwan's air space, but in its ADIZ, a broader area Taiwan monitors and patrols that acts to give it more time to respond to any threats.
Taiwan has raised its alert since Russia invaded Ukraine, wary of China making a similar move, though the government in Taipei has not reported any signs this is about to happen.
[Related: Israel orders telecoms to build ‘cyber Iron Dome’]
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