Originally a Bluesky thread

This article is an interesting account of how Volt Typhoon came up in a bilateral cyber dialog. I would be wary of assuming that Wang’s comments here reflected a high level decision in Beijing to signal Washington.

I’m a bit skeptical because Beijing probably did not view this specific channel as a particularly important one. Wang is a mid-level official at MFA, and the fact that he was leading the dialog (with no mention of representation from the PLA), suggests China was mostly going through the motions on cyber issues. Diplomatic engagements led by functional as opposed to regional departments are also more likely to generate misinterpretations of political dynamics from participants on both sides, in my opinion.

It’s certainly possible that there may have been a change in Beijing’s talking points about Volt Typhoon that was reflected in this dialogue, but I think there’s also a substantial risk of misinterpretation.

I appreciated the careful nuance in the reporting, which relayed the fact that Wang’s comments were “indirect and somewhat ambiguous.” It would’ve been easy to gloss over that.