Guangzhou authorities in China have charged a Taiwanese political group with conducting a cyberattack against a leading local technology company in the southern city of China, allegedly backed by Taiwan’s pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
The accusations, according to a preliminary police investigation, emerged on Tuesday, May 27, 2025.
Technical analysis of the attack programs and system logs indicated their intrusion was connected to a foreign hacker organization claimed to be behind the ruling Democratic Progressive Party in Taiwan, the statement by the Guangzhou police said.
According to the police report, this same group has been stepping up its operations since 2024, conducting thorough research and launching multiple cyberattacks aimed at more than 1,000 important network systems in over ten provinces in mainland China.
The victims are said to be from the defense, energy, hydro-power, transportation and government bodies. According to reports, the hackers used basic tactics, such as a rampant phishing campaign, exploitation of published vulnerabilities, trying bad passwords multiple times, and unsophisticated, self-developed Trojan spyware.
The Chinese officials also pointed out that the attacks displayed “obvious destructive intentions” “and “extremely malice intentions.” They say the larger and more frequent nature of these attacks by the Taiwan-linked group indicate a hostile policy.
Members of the investigation team said that the group’s technical abilities were not particularly advanced, but that its victim pool is broad-based.
The hackers are believed to have used VPNs, foreign cloud servers and botnets using IP addresses from a number of countries, including but not limited to the United States, France, South Korea, Japan, the Netherlands, Israel and Poland in order to mask their origin.
It said the Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau has reported the situation to higher authorities nationwide and the case is still being investigated. They had promised to apprehend the criminal gangs responsible, as well as those behind them.
Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council had not responded to the allegations. Over the years, however, Taiwan has denied involvement in offensive cyber operations against the mainland based on similar accusations, saying that it uses cyber capabilities largely for national defense.
The new allegations come amid already fraught relations between Beijing and Taipei, with China seeking to claim the self-governing island as its own territory. Cyber operations are an additional battleground, and both sides repeatedly accuse the other of destructive, digital encroachments.