China represents an growing risk to the US energy grid, lawmakers have been instructed Tuesday throughout a listening to by which they have been warned a cyberattack from the nation might plunge navy and different delicate websites into darkness.

“The Chinese activities are quite alarming,” mentioned Manny Cancel, senior vice chairman of the North American Electric Reliability Corp., throughout testimony earlier than a US House subcommittee. “Chinese cyber activities are one of the most dynamic cyber threats. China continues to demonstrate increasing sophistication, including new and adaptive techniques to gain access to networks.”

The listening to, held by the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, comes because the nation’s energy grid grows more and more weak to cyberattacks, whereas incidents resembling bodily assaults and vandalism elevated some 77% in 2022, in response to the committee.

China is “almost certainly capable” of launching cyberattacks that might disrupt important infrastructure providers throughout the US, together with oil and gasoline pipelines and rail methods, in response to a report printed earlier this yr by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

The listening to comes amid growing tensions with China, together with experiences final week that Chinese hackers breached e mail accounts of US officers from the State Department, in addition to US Commerce Department Secretary Gina Raimondo.

“Imagine what is possible if the CCP attacks our grid,” mentioned Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Washington Republican who chairs the complete committee.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning repeated Beijing’s line that it’s a sufferer of hacking, and likewise accused the US of “large-scale and indiscriminate cyberattacks on many countries.”

“We don’t think the US should hit out at China for political purposes,” she mentioned Wednesday at a daily press briefing in Beijing.