Sichuan Silence Information Technology and Guan Tianfeng: Your Criminal Our Hero

Even before DeepSeek's debut sparked pride among Chinese netizens, US sanctions on Sichuan Silence developer Guan Tianfeng triggered online vows to "march forward" in cyberpower competition

The release of the DeepSeek AI chatbot in January 2025, shaking up stock markets and the American tech sector, set off an explosion of glee in Chinese social media. Chinese netizens portrayed the event as “the tipping point for the global technological rivalry with the United States and the ‘darkest hour’ in Silicon Valley,” according to the New York Times.

The previous month, Chinese social media users had expressed similar enthusiasm about the Chinese cybersecurity company Sichuan Silence Information Technology Company (Sichuan Silence), and one of its employees, Guan Tianfeng (关天烽), after the United States took action against that company. Less than a week after the Natto Team published the post “Sichuan Silence Information Technology: Great Sounds are Often Inaudible,” on December 10, 2024 the US Department of the Treasury sanctioned Sichuan Silence and its employee Guan Tianfeng for compromising tens of thousands of firewalls worldwide in April 2020. Also on December 10, the US D…