On March 25th, the authorities of the United States, the United Kingdom and New Zealand openly accused and denounced Beijing of carrying out cyber attacks against millions of citizens of the three above-mentioned countries. In the last few days, dozens of parliamentarians belonging to the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) have documented multiple intrusions and theft of personal data. One of them is a former member of the French Senate and honorary member of the Global Committee for the Rule of Law “Marco Pannella”, André Gattolin. In a statement issued on March 27th, IPAC puts the blame of those attacks on “APT31”, a group of hackers associated with the government of the People’s Republic of China. These and other serious violations of international customary laws and norms which are supposed to govern the relations between States must be condemned. Democratic institutions and media outlets must put in place adequate and urgent measures to meet the present and future challenge. I would like to express my heartfelt solidarity and full support to all IPAC members involved in the attacks.
Giulio Terzi