China's artificial intelligence (AI) startup DeepSeek said on Tuesday that it had been hit with large-scale malicious cyberattacks, while a Chinese cybersecurity specialist noted that the IP addresses associated with the attacks all show their geographic locations in the United States.
An analysis report from Chinese cybersecurity company QAX restored the entire timeline of the cyberattacks. According to the data, the attacks began on Jan 3 and the number of attacks surged on Monday and Tuesday.
The brute-force attacks have become the primary strategy lately, which differ from the distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks previously used by the attackers, according to Wang Hui, a cybersecurity specialist from QAX.
"They are actually two types of attacks. The DDoS attack primarily consumes the server's resources or occupies its bandwidth, making it impossible for users to access the system. The brute-force attack, on the other hand, targets DeepSeek users' password. The attacker steals the user's password, and once they have it, they can access the user's account and perform actions like asking questions or searching. They can also view the user's activities on DeepSeek and potentially access the user's private information. We can monitor the traffic from these brute-force attacks. Each IP address has a geographic location, and the IP addresses associated with the attacks all show geographic locations in the United States," he said.
Wang added that several Chinese leading companies had been attacked for economic gains or political reasons.
"At least based on the incidents we've observed so far, it seems that major Chinese companies which lead their respective fields, such as the one which produces the Black Myth: Wukong and now DeepSeek, had been targeted for economic gains or political reasons," said the specialist.
In January 2025, DeepSeek released its latest model, DeepSeek-R1, which has attracted significant attention for its advanced reasoning capabilities. The model is said to have achieved performance comparable to leading AI systems, such as OpenAI's ChatGPT, but at a fraction of the development cost.
Chinese AI startup hit by large-scale malicious cyberattacks
China recorded 82.035 million border entries and exits by foreign nationals in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 26.4 percent, shown by latest data released by the National Immigration Administration of China.
"Of these entries, 30.08 million were made under visa‑free arrangements, accounting for 73.1 percent of all inbound foreign‑national crossings and marking a 49.5 percent rise compared to the previous year," said Lyu Ning, a spokeswoman of the National Immigration Administration of China.
Driven by multiple visa‑facilitation policies, China has strengthened its position as a favored global destination, attracting travelers from popular cities to emerging border regions for both sightseeing and in‑depth cultural experiences.
The upgraded 240-hour transit visa‑free policy, launched in late 2024, served as a major catalyst.
In 2025, its coverage was expanded to include Indonesia and five additional ports in south China's Guangdong Province, bringing the total number of eligible ports nationwide to 65, greatly boosting cross‑border travel.
Meanwhile, China's visa‑free "circle of friends" continued to grow. With 11 new countries added, including Brazil, Russia, and Sweden, the total number of unilateral visa‑free countries reached 48, while mutual visa‑exemption agreements expanded to 29.
Notably, the Hainan Free Trade Port now offers visa‑free entry to citizens of 86 countries, with visa‑free travelers making up 88.9 percent of all arrivals there.
The policy effect has further penetrated into border areas. At Heihe Port in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, visa‑free entry for Russian tourists drove Russian arrivals to 46,000 in September and October 2025 alone, a 28.4 percent year-on-year increase.
Large tour groups, such as one with 174 travelers, were able to complete border procedures in as little as 20 minutes thanks to streamlined clearance services.
In southwest China's Yunnan Province, a visa‑free policy for ASEAN tourist groups entering via Xishuangbanna, covering ten countries including Malaysia, Thailand, and Laos, took effect in February 2025.
In southwest China's Yunnan Province, a visa‑free policy for ASEAN tourist groups entering via Xishuangbanna was implemented starting February 10, 2025, covering ten member states including Malaysia, Thailand, and Laos.
This "ready‑to‑go" arrangement has provided greater travel convenience for ASEAN visitors.
As a core hub under this policy, Mohan Port processed over 160 inbound and outbound tourist groups from the ten ASEAN countries in 2025.
"We are international travelers from Singapore. We've been to China many times. But this is our first time taking the China-Laos Railway. The trip is really wonderful," said a passenger from Singapore.
China's inbound travel surges as visa‑free policies attract global visitors
