meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
The John Batchelor Show

S8 Ep832: 15/16: Jack Burnham details the rare extradition and indictment of a Chinese national, Mr. U, for state-sponsored hacking. Operating under "Silk Typhoon," the group targeted American COVID-19 research. This operation demonstrates China's strategy of using

The John Batchelor Show

John Batchelor

Society & Culture, Arts, News, Books

4.52.8K Ratings

🗓️ 6 May 2026

⏱️ 15 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

15/16: Jack Burnham details the rare extradition and indictment of a Chinese national, Mr. U, for state-sponsored hacking. Operating under "Silk Typhoon," the group targeted American COVID-19 research. This operation demonstrates China's strategy of using private actors to steal scientific excellence and prepare the digital battlefield.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

I'm John Batchel, my colleague and co-host, that is McCotter.

0:19.7

American greatness is here, and we're very pleased to welcome Jack Burnham,

0:23.6

senior research analyst to Foundation for Defense of Democracy.

0:26.7

And my guide on the People's Republic of China's campaign to interrupt, to intervene,

0:35.5

to thieve, to just generally Harris, the United States of America,

0:40.2

private and public institutions with all manner of intervention, including balloons and drones,

0:51.3

but we're going to focus on an indictment that happened to a Chinese national

0:56.2

accused of state-sponsored hacking. His name is Mr. U, X-U, and he's now not only indicted,

1:04.9

but I believe he's going to be transferred into the possession of the United States authorities.

1:10.6

Jack, a very good day to you. What is Mr.

1:13.8

you accused of and what are the circumstances of his suddenly being detained? I thought they

1:19.5

all lived in China and were out of reach of the authorities. Good day to you, Jack.

1:24.8

Thank you for having me. I would say the first is this is a rare occurrence.

1:29.4

It's relatively rare for exactly the reason that you mentioned for a Chinese national accused of states on espionage from seeing the inside of an American courtroom.

1:39.6

And this is a case in which the United States worked in very close to cooperation with the government

1:46.0

of Italy and the Italian cyber authorities to investigate and ultimately indict this Chinese

1:51.9

national on allegations of participating in Chinese state-sponsored hacking. And so it's really

1:58.3

both the result of some excellent cooperation, cross-border cooperation,

2:02.9

between two countries that are really taking cyber security and cyber-estrianized increasingly

2:09.0

seriously in the legal realm, combined with really pulling back the curtain on a Chinese cyber

2:14.4

operation that have really been ongoing likely for close to seven,

2:19.2

eight years at this point in some cases of Chinese cyber operators, some of which are

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from John Batchelor, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of John Batchelor and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.