Few and Far Between: During China’s Red Hacker Era, Patriotic Hacktivism Was Widespread—Talent Was Not

Inside the small, elite circles that powered China’s massive hacker communities in the late 1990s and 2000s.

This post is excerpted from the Cyberdefense Report "Before Vegas: The ‘Red Hackers’ Who Shaped China’s Cyber Ecosystem," published in July 2025 by the Center for Security Studies (CSS) at ETH Zurich, Switzerland.

Truly elite offensive cyber talent has always been rare. Despite the growth of cybersecurity communities worldwide, and the emergence of extensive and structured talent pipelines in countries like China – examined in Natto pieces 1, 2 and 3 – which have made high-quality talent more widely available, truly exceptional individuals remain scarce and highly sought after.

As early as 2013, the Science of Military Strategy—a foundational text published by the PLA Academy of Military Science—noted that while cyber warfare benefits from a “broad mass base,” the traditional Chinese military ideal of “all people are soldiers” does not translate to cyberspace. Instead, it emphasized that only an “extremely lean” cohort possessed the capabilities required for high-level cyber operations.¹

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