China’s cyber power trails US by a decade, study finds

China’s strengths as a cyber power are being undermined by poor security and weak intelligence analysis, according to new research that predicts Beijing will be unable to match US cyber capabilities for at least a decade.

The study, published on Monday by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, comes as a series of hacking campaigns have highlighted the growing threat of online espionage by hostile states.

In December, US officials discovered that Russia’s foreign intelligence service, the SVR, had hijacked SolarWinds software to penetrate government targets in Washington including the commerce and Treasury departments. Three months later, Microsoft email software was compromised by suspected Chinese state-backed hackers to probe US non-governmental organisations and think-tanks.

China, like Russia, has proven expertise in offensive cyber operations — conducting online spying, intellectual property theft and disinformation campaigns against the US and its allies. But both countries were held back in IISS researchers’ ranking by comparatively loose cyber security compared with their competitors, according to the IISS.

Five stories in the news

1. US judge dismisses antitrust lawsuits against Facebook A judge has dismissed two antitrust lawsuits against Facebook, one filed by the Federal Trade Commission and another by a coalition of US states, dealing a significant blow to regulators and sending the company’s share price to record levels.

• Elsewhere in tech: The technology-heavy Nasdaq index closed up almost 1 per cent to reach a new all-time high, reversing losses seen on Friday.

2. White House defends air strikes on Iran-backed militia targets The Biden administration on Monday defended air strikes launched over the weekend on the facilities of two Iran-backed militia groups on the border between Syria and Iraq, the second such attack by US forces in four months.

3. Hitachi targets strong US growth Hitachi is anticipating a wave of infrastructure spending and a return of manufacturing under the Biden administration, as the Japanese industrial conglomerate bets on the US market to drive its next phase of growth.

4. Some Binance customers frozen out of withdrawals Binance customers have lost the ability to withdraw and deposit pounds using one of the main UK payments systems, three days after the country’s financial watchdog banned the crypto exchange from operating in Britain.

5. Tigrayan forces enter regional capital Forces loyal to the former ruling party in Ethiopia’s rebel Tigray region have entered the regional capital Mekelle, dealing the harshest blow to the government in Addis Ababa since a gruesome conflict began in November. 

Coronavirus digest

• A so-called multivalent vaccine might protect against all Covid-19 mutations and any future pathogen from the betacoronavirus family.

• Hong Kong is to prohibit UK travellers from entering the Chinese territory, citing the country’s rising coronavirus case numbers.

• Thousands of migrant workers are fleeing Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka to escape an imminent lockdown and a surge in Covid-19 cases linked to the Delta variant.

• Hopes are rapidly fading that the US and UK will agree to open an air corridor before the end of the summer.

• England’s new health secretary said he wanted the country to return to normal “as quickly as possible” after taking over from Matt Hancock, who resigned over the weekend following an extramarital affair.

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The day ahead

G20 foreign ministers meeting Top officials will meet in Italy today. Although the Biden administration had pushed for a meeting between Antony Blinken, US secretary of state, and Wang Yi, China’s foreign minister, it has been reported that such a meeting will not occur. (FT, Reuters)

Euro 2020: England vs Germany For most England fans, Tuesday’s second-round Euro 2020 match at Wembley should be a friendly affair. That’s largely because English people now define themselves more against each other than against the Germans, writes Simon Kuper.

Join us on June 29 for our FT/Nikkei Asia Technology Boom event. The pandemic has brought the power of technology into sharp focus. Today, the global tech innovation ecosystem is at its most dynamic, especially in Asia. Hear from FT editors and experts on how the industry will transform in the post-pandemic future. Register here.

What else we’re reading

Is Xi Jinping’s China on the right track? As the Chinese Communist party turns 100 this week, some fret that Xi’s empowerment — epitomised by his assertion that “north, south, east, west and centre, the party is leader of all” — could hasten the party’s destruction, as top-down ossification engenders apathy and cynicism among its 92m members.

The struggle to secure good jobs Class of 2021 graduates are entering a global jobs market where there are fewer opportunities and increased competition. “I feel left behind, not only by the job market, but by the institutions that offered my education,” one London-based engineering graduate said. Meanwhile, US business owners, particularly those who pay minimum or close to minimum wage, are struggling to fill vacancies.

‘It’s like standing at the gates of hell’ Five days after the collapse of Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Florida, emergency responders are still searching for more than 150 people. They’ve begun tunnelling under massive pile of rubble, which has evoked images of 9/11 and the 2010 Haiti earthquake. (NYMag, Miami Herald)

The Chinese women forced to retire China’s female professionals are challenging the world’s lowest retirement age. Court records reveal that Chinese women have sued their employers more than 1,000 times since 2019 for making them quit work at 50. In the decade before 2019, there were fewer than 800 such cases.

• Opinion: Meme stock hype can deter women from investing, writes Ellen Carr, a bond portfolio manager at Barksdale Investment Management.

Mexico’s president is undeterred by bruising midterms Within days of the recent midterm elections, Andrés Manuel López Obrador vowed to pursue constitutional reforms in the areas of energy, elections and security, despite having lost the two-thirds majority needed for such changes in congress. Mexico City’s mayor told the FT in an interview that there was no need for the president “to change direction” despite losing seats in the recent elections.

Climate Capital

A record-breaking heatwave across the western US has intensified, as climate change and an atmospheric “heat dome” combine to bring about the hottest temperature the region has ever experienced.