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McCain letter to Ma
hacked by Chinese in 2008
Staff writer, with CNA, WASHINGTON
A personal letter from US Senator John McCain to President Ma Ying-jeou (°¨^¤E) in
2008 when McCain was seeking the Republican presidential nomination was stolen
before it was sent as part of a massive cyberespionage operation backed by the
Chinese government, NBC News reported on Thursday.
In the letter dated July 25, 2008, which was drafted on campaign computers,
McCain pledged his support for the US-Taiwan relationship and Ma¡¦s efforts to
modernize his country¡¦s military, according to the report.
However, before the letter had even been delivered, a top McCain foreign policy
adviser received a telephone call from a senior Chinese diplomat in Washington
complaining about the correspondence, the report said.
¡§He was putting me on notice that they knew this was going on,¡¨ Randall Schriver,
a former deputy assistant secretary of state who was serving as a top McCain
adviser on Asian policy, told NBC News. ¡§It certainly struck me as odd that they
would be so well-informed.¡¨
The TV network said the cyberespionage operation against the 2008 presidential
campaigns of McCain and US President Barack Obama was traced to hacking units
backed by Beijing.
The hacking was targeted at internal data from both campaigns, including
internal position papers and private e-mails of key advisers in both camps, and
was first detected by the FBI in the summer of 2008, it said.
¡§Based on everything I know, this was a case of political cyberespionage by the
Chinese government against the two American political parties,¡¨ former US navy
admiral Dennis Blair, who served as Obama¡¦s director of national intelligence in
2009 and 2010, told the TV network.
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