The Czech government named a culprit – a cyber surveillance group Advanced Persistent Threat 31 (APT31), which is publicly connected to the Ministry of State Security in the People’s Republic of China.
These kinds of cyberattacks are not that unique in Europe, and do not only come from China but often also Russia. “What is new is that the Czech government first attributed it to China,” said
Dominika Remžová, a China Projects Analyst from the Czech Association for International Affairs for PulseZ.
APT31 Strikes Again
This is not the first time this group has been accused of an attack. In 2020, it targeted emails of staff working for candidate Joe Biden. In the UK, “[the] Electoral Commission systems were highly likely compromised by a Chinese state-affiliated entity between 2021 and 2022,” as stated on the UK’s government website. Finland also recorded a parliamentary breach between late 2020 and early 2021. As a result, The US and the UK sanctioned individuals connected to the group.
The official statement of the Czech government said that, “the Czech government unequivocally condemns this malicious cyber campaign against its critical infrastructure. This action undermines the credibility of the People’s Republic of China and contradicts its public statements.”
According to a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for PulseZ, “the discovery was made during the attack and security measures were taken during the attack. The measures were completed by the transition to a new security system.” This new security system was implemented in July 2024, and according to the Foreign minister Jan Lipavský, it does not require the use of the Internet.
A Journey Through Czech-China Relations From Prague to Beijing
“The relations between China and the Czech Republic have more or less been going on since the 1990s. First, Taiwan had big interests in Central Europe before the 1990s, as it wanted to build diplomatic relations with the smaller countries of Central and Eastern Europe. But then as China grew and became a big economic power onwards, it became very competitive through investment and trade relations, which of course Taiwan had no way of competing with,” said Remžová.
“The Czech Republic, primarily under [the previous] President Zeman, was very interested in diversifying its economic relations. They wanted to have more Chinese investment and trade to help it in its own economic growth. A lot of those promises didn’t materialize, so over the last 3-4 years those relationships have been deteriorating,
“The Czech Republic under the current government, as there will be elections [in October 2025], it will probably change again, but with Petr Fiala [Prime Minister] and Miloš Vystrčil [President of the Senate] it was a big agenda to improve relations with Taiwan again. They advocated for “values-based” foreign policy,”
“They said that just like we had it under Václav Havel, we just had relations with democratic countries, not with autocratic countries, China didn’t help us much economically anyway, because we don’t have any significant direct economic lines, if you look at supply relations, it’s a little bit different, but of course some direct economic relations with China are really not that significant in Central and Eastern Europe, especially compared to Western Europe,” concluded Remžová.
Absolute Support From Allies
The countries of the EU as well as the EU institutions and NATO expressed solidarity with the Czech Republic and offered their alliance. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs shared all the findings from the investigation with the aforementioned allies and announced that the Czech Republic is getting maximum support.
The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, in other words, an expert diplomat, Kaja Kallas said: “We call upon all states, including China, to refrain from such behavior, to respect international law and to adhere to the UN norms and principles, including those related to critical infrastructure.”
What It Means for China
For now, the EU is ready to impose sanctions, following the previous cases from the US and the UK. Kallas did not specify yet, what kind of sanctions these would be and clarified that they would be dealt with on a case-by-case basis as the EU did in the past.
Well before this cyber attack came to light, the EU had already started the process of shifting partnerships away from China, following China’s expansion and the escalation in the relationship between China and the US.
“From the European side, there may be more measures in the way of European economic security, indeed there are now various new toolkits which affect not only China, but also Russia or Iran,” said Remžová.
On Jun 2, 2025, new measures under the International Procurement Instrument have come out which limit Chinese medical device suppliers in bidding for public procurement. The EU Commission proposed this measure after starting an investigation in 2024 that revealed that Chinese companies were not fair competition to EU companies in terms of access to public tenders in Europe.
The EU-China summit is expected to take place in July, in China to mark 50 years of the superpower’s relations. Chinese President Xi Jinping declined the invitation to Brussels for the occasion, so for now the planning continues.
