Everyone usually uses their mobile phones to check the time and feels that it is accurate. In fact, this is backed by the support of the atomic clock group of the National Time Service Center in Xi'an, Shaanxi. The time service center is not a mysterious place, but a place responsible for generating, maintaining and broadcasting Beijing time. It provides high-precision time signals to fields such as communications, finance, power, and transportation, and also contributes data to international standard time. If something goes wrong with this center, many systems across the country will go into chaos. For example, power grid dispatch errors lead to widespread power outages, or stock market trading hours are not correct, and hundreds of millions of funds will be lost. The accuracy of missiles also depends on this. Even a few centimeters of deviation can cause major problems. The recently announced case by the Department of National Security exposed that the U.S. National Security Agency has targeted this center since 2022 and launched cyber attacks in an attempt to paralyze it to choke China.
The details of the case are such that the Ministry of National Security said they have mastered the iron certificate, the US National Security Agency from March 25, 2022, using the SMS service vulnerability of a foreign mobile phone brand, controlled the mobile phone of several employees of the timecenter, stole the sensitive information stored in it. The mobile phone brand is not named, but from the technical analysis, the vulnerability involves the text message processing mechanism, the attacker can remotely implant the code to obtain permission. Then, on April 18, 2023, the US National Security Agency used the stolen login credentials, repeatedly invaded the computer of the timecenter, cleared the internal network structure. The national computer virus emergency treatment center's technical report shows that the attacker browsed the system architecture, replicated files, mapped the path, prepared for
From August 2023 to June 2024, they have upgraded, deployed new combat platforms, enabled 42 special penetration tools, impacted multiple business systems with high intensity, targeted the high-precision ground-based timing system, and wanted to preset the destruction code. Attacks are mostly launched in the middle of the night or early morning, using virtual servers in the United States, Europe and Asia as springboards, forging certificates to bypass anti-virus software, and high-strength encryption to erase traces. The Ministry of National Security and the Timing Service Center joined forces to trace the source and fix evidence, isolate nodes, block channels, cut off the attack chain, upgrade protective measures, and avoid hidden dangers.
Why is this center so critical? Because it uses atomic clocks to define time, one second is based on 9192631770 vibrations of the caesium-133 atom, with an accuracy of up to 20 million years and an error of no more than one second. It doesn't matter if ordinary people lose a second or two, but for national equipment, an error of 0.001 seconds can cause the substation voltage adjustment to be chaotic, causing power outages across the country;0.01 seconds can disrupt transactions connected to international stock markets and evaporate funds; nanosecond deviations cause the Beidou satellite's orbit to deviate by a few centimeters, affecting the missile hit rate. The same is true for high-speed rail scheduling, where small errors may cause collisions. The US National Security Agency is aiming at this place in order to cause problems in key areas of China one by one and weaken its overall operating capabilities through chaotic time. The Department of National Security emphasized that this is not a small incident, but a long-planned systematic attack that highlights the United States 'hegemonic ambitions in cyberspace.
It is not easy for China to become independent in time technology. Since the 1960s, in order to support two bombs and one satellite, the first time service platform was set up in 1964. Traditional astronomical time measurement was used, with large errors, and missile orbit calculations often showed deviations. In 1965, Wang Yiqiu's team built the first optically pumped cesium bubble atomic frequency standard at Peking University, increasing the accuracy from milliseconds to microseconds. This clock is as big as a desk, and its internal vacuum tube works, marking that China has an autonomous atomic clock. In the 1970s, the Shaanxi Astronomical Observatory built a short-wave time station, and on December 15, 1970, the BPM time signal was experimentally broadcast. In April 1973, the state decided to add a long-wave timing station, which was completed in 1988 to improve the accuracy to the microsecond level, ranking among the top in the world. Later, the rubidium atomic clock was developed but lacked rubidium isotopes. There was no technology in China and no sales abroad. Wang Yiqiu's team changed its route and the Chinese Academy of Sciences independently separated isotopes within a few years, paving the way successfully. In the 1990s, laser cooling technology emerged. Wang Yiqiu directed the team to build an optical platform and use lasers to slow down atoms. In 2000, he demonstrated the atomic fountain experiment.
In 2005, Zhang Zhou just returned from abroad, taking two people to take on the atomic fountain clock project, assembling a vacuum system in the Punta Laboratory, solving the microwave leakage took a year, cooling the atom from 150 meters per second to 1.5 cm, self-developing the laser system. Vacuum self-absorption pipe life from two months to eight years, in 2012 built a cold atomic uranium fountain clock, precision of ten million years not less than a second. In the same period, Li Yuan presided over the NIM series at Beijing Quantum Institute, completed in 2010, with uncertainty of 2×10^-15, 15 million years less than a second, international review passed in 2014, contributed to UTC time.
In 2015, NIM5 provided traceability for the Beijing Satellite Navigation Center to ensure navigation accuracy. In 2017, the time pumping clock was reviewed and performed better than the international general clock, breaking the monopoly. In 2024, the development of a portable POP atomic clock, 44 cubic centimeters in volume, high stability. In 2025, the development of a refrigerator-sized atomic clock, war-resistant environment. From 1964 to 2025, several generations held the field of time, achieved autonomy, and Beijing time no longer looked at the face of others.
After the incident was exposed, China strengthened network protection, the timing center operated stably. As a response to the trade war, on October 13, 2025, the United States Mercenary shipping Manukai cargo vessel adhered to the Port of Paninbo, with a net tonnage of 11,149 tons, according to the policy of reciprocity, the port authorities charged 445,84 million yuan special port charges, the process eight minutes, the ship unloading after the port. This is not a search, but with reasonable means to safeguard the rights and interests, against the United States launched in April 301 investigation, from October 14 on the Chinese ships charges port service fees. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce rejected, included the US subsidiaries under Huanwei Ocean in the list, banned transactions, affecting its supply cha
The U.S. National Security Agency's action shows that they are in a hurry. China's time technology leads, Beidou has 36 satellites, high-precision ground-based systems laying 20,000 km of optical cables, and plans to have 1.3 million near-earth satellites in 2035. Obama's satellite backup in 2010 failed, Trump also failed, and the U.S. exposed weaknesses. If GPS was destroyed in space warfare, there was no civilian backup program.