Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

Before China's Army Day on August 1, the US media reported that the Obama administration was determined to retaliate against China for allegedly stealing more than 20 million Americans' personal data from the database of the Office of Personnel Management. US President Barack Obama has asked his staff to figure out more creative responses and his aides even explored applying economic sanctions against China.

There has been no US official response to the report and its authenticity is unknown. It may be just the media chasing at shadows. However, as the saying goes, there is no smoke without fire. The US often hypes up a topic and uses it to forge ahead its certain plan. For instance, it has played up the issue of Chinese hackers for a long time and as a result the US has expanded its cyber force greatly.

The US is determined to put the blame on China, nevertheless without any concrete evidence. China has remained patient to explain its position against the groundless US accusations, to which yet Washington never listens. What we need to do now is to recognize the US' true aim and come up with workable countermeasures.

In fact, the US has reminded us of the necessity to stay vigilant over cyber security. It is fairly important and also difficult to safeguard China's national interests in a connected and fractured cyberspace. And the US pressurizing China on cyber security can compel us to strengthen our own cyber forces.

China's strategic awakening in cyberspace is both an active choice to conform to the times and a result of dealing with challenges. The PRISM program revealed by ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden has been the biggest stimulator of China's aspiration to become a cyber power and in this process China has no fear of the cyber storm triggered by the US.

China's new national security law has made clear its goal to safeguard the country's sovereignty, security and development interests in cyberspace while the draft cyber security law will help put into place a long-lasting mechanism of building national defense force in cyberspace. The US retaliation will result in a powerful Chinese cyber force that will become the pillar in protecting the peace and development of global cyberspace.

China needs to act right immediately. In accordance with the terms of safeguarding national sovereignty and countering Internet intrusion, China has to accelerate its efforts to build cyber force and remove the constraint of being unable to guard the national cyber gateway.

In building a cyber force, we can draw upon the successful experience of the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. As historic opportunities are offered in upgrading the integration of military and civilian uses of cyber technologies, we should increase the investment in cyber security enterprises and uphold cyber defense with an advanced cyber security industry.

Moreover, there should be a cyber range built by exploring the US experience in a bid to establish virtual environment of cyber attack and defense and then provide a training ground for the development of China's future cyber force.

China's basic ideas in cyberspace governance are to construct cyberspace that features peace, security, opening and cooperation and to form a global Internet governance system that is multilateral, democratic and transparent. I have proposed three principles of expanding shared interests, establishing reciprocal balance and safeguarding mutual security. I hope that other countries can get rid of their Cold War mentality and walk toward the bright path of win-win cooperation in cyberspace development.

The author is director of the Strategy Research Institute for China's Cyber Space at China Institute for Innovation & Development Strategy. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn