China Quietly Admitted to Volt Typhoon Cyberattacks, US Officials Shaken
In a closed-door Geneva summit, Chinese officials admitted—albeit indirectly—to orchestrating Volt Typhoon cyberattacks on US infrastructure. The move signals escalating covert conflict over Taiwan and exposes the US grid’s vulnerability to prolonged foreign infiltration.
At a December 2024 summit in Geneva, Chinese officials quietly acknowledged responsibility for the Volt Typhoon cyberattacks targeting US infrastructure. According to The Wall Street Journal (paywalled), this disclosure occurred during a back-channel meeting with members of the outgoing Biden administration. The acknowledgment was vague enough to maintain diplomatic deniability but pointed enough for US officials to interpret it as a retaliatory message over Washington’s backing of Taiwan.
The Volt Typhoon operation wasn’t just another cyberespionage effort it was a strategic intrusion into the bones of America’s civilian infrastructure. Chinese state-backed actors reportedly exploited zero-day vulnerabilities to infiltrate critical sectors including utilities, telecoms, and the electric grid. One chilling detail: operatives remained inside US grid systems undetected for 300 days in 2023. That kind of dwell time doesn’t happen without systemic negligence or compromised oversight.
Washington has predictably labeled Volt Typhoon as an "unacceptable provocation". Yet the Salt Typhoon campaign also mentioned in the Geneva talks and reportedly compromising communications of senior US officials was shrugged off as “cyberespionage,” the same tactic the US routinely uses abroad. The hypocrisy is standard operating procedure: when America does it, it’s security. When adversaries do it, it’s war.
This incident shows us, two critical truths.
- First, US infrastructure is nowhere near prepared to withstand a sustained nation-state level cyberattack.
- Second, the geopolitical conflict over Taiwan is no longer theoretical it’s already being fought in the digital shadows.
China didn’t need to shout. Its message was clear: “Back off Taiwan or face systemic consequences.” The fact that it took a closed-door meeting in a Swiss conference room for US officials to piece that together shows just how far behind the curve Washington really is.
