China has accused the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) of conducting cyberattacks on its National Time Service Centre (NTSC), a facility critical to communications, financial systems, and defense infrastructure. According to the Chinese Ministry of State Security, the NSA used 42 types of what it called “special cyberattack weapons” to infiltrate NTSC’s internal networks between 2023 and 2024. The allegations, detailed in a public statement, lack verifiable evidence, and the U.S. government has not responded.
The NTSC provides high-precision time synchronization for vital systems, including satellite navigation, power grids, and communication networks. A senior NTSC official, Wei Dong, warned that such attacks could disrupt key national timing systems, potentially compromising operations in power substations and satellite-based services. Li Jianhua, a director at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, described the incident as “a classic form of state-level cyber aggression,” referring to it as an advanced persistent threat.
The accusations coincide with a major outage at Amazon Web Services (AWS) on October 20, which disrupted operations for platforms like Snapchat and Fortnite. Meanwhile, U.S. officials have repeatedly blamed Chinese state-backed actors for cyber operations targeting American infrastructure, including a 2024 breach of Treasury Department systems and attacks on water facilities. In July 2025, Microsoft reported that Chinese hackers exploited a zero-day vulnerability to access organizations, including the National Nuclear Security Administration.
