“They’ve broken in, and they can read your texts, and they can hear your conversations,” warned Republican Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota, speaking about the Chinese Communist Party during a panel last month at the Halifax International Security Forum.

His warning comes after the Chinese government hacking outfit Salt Typhoon carried out what is thought to be the worst telecommunications attack in United States history. It breached eight or more major communication networks, including AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon, with disturbing implications for millions of people, not only in the United States but in dozens of other nations. Experts say the nature of the hack allows China to spy on almost anyone with a smartphone.

“Unless you are using a specialized app,” Rounds said, “any one of us and every one of us today is subject to the review by the Chinese Communist government of any cell phone conversation you have with anyone in America.”

He added: “It’s just a matter of who they want to listen to, and who they don’t.”

When members of the Senate Intelligence Committee were informed of the implications of the hack, they were visibly shaken. The details of what China can now do to us “rocked them,” Committee Chair Democrat Mark Warner of Virginia said. “This is the most serious breach in our history, and I think the American people need to know how extensive, and frankly how many of our major cell comms have been compromised.”

The Chinese hackers have already used the breach to target thousands of high-profile Americans, including several Biden administration officials as well as President-elect Donald Trump and his running mate, J. D. Vance. The hackers can tell who these individuals were speaking to during their calls, where they spoke from, and when the calls took place. In certain cases, they retrieved the actual audio files of certain calls, as well as content from their text messages.

Since authorities have not found a way to evict the hackers from the networks, the Chinese remain capable of listening in on most anyone they choose.

Salih Hudayar, foreign minister of the East Turkistan government-in-exile, told the Trumpet on December 5 that the attack has grave implications for his people, the Uyghurs. And he believes it is likely that the “worst-case scenario” is “already unfolding.”

The Uyghurs have been trying to break free of the Chinese Communist Party’s control for decades so that they can return their country to self-rule. China has responded to these efforts by locking millions of Uyghurs in concentration camps and making the rest live like prisoners in their own houses and neighborhoods by turning their region, Xinjiang, into one of the world’s most strictly controlled surveillance states. In 2020, the Trump administration said China’s crackdown on Uyghurs equates to nothing less than genocide.

Many Uyghurs, like Hudayar, have fled the brutal oppression and now live in the U.S., where they advocate for the human and political rights of Uyghurs still living in Xinjiang. Members of the Chinese Communist Party (ccp) view such people as threats to their power and feel they must be silenced. Salt Typhoon’s attack means the ccp is well positioned to snuff out many of their voices—even those in America.

“The ccp’s surveillance capabilities, especially through mobile devices, pose a significant threat to the East Turkistani/Uyghur community,” Hudayar said. “This surveillance extends beyond privacy invasion; it’s a tool for political suppression and control.”

It is not hard to imagine Communist agents using their new broadscale infiltration to listen in on the conversations of any Uyghurs they view as threats to their control. It isn’t hard to imagine them using what they learn to blackmail certain individuals into either giving up the fight or furthering the ccp’s objectives. For the ones who won’t comply, the ccp can track their movements and even send agents to confront them in person.

Hudayar said that knowing the ccp is in their pockets and capable of these things has already led to “self-censorship and fear among Uyghurs, both within East Turkistan and the diaspora.”

He added: “Beijing likely already uses stolen data for harassment, blackmail and co-optation, discrediting individuals and/or coercing them into silence and cooperation.”

The same chilling possibilities are true for millions of U.S. citizens, including government employees, who could be blackmailed into doing China’s bidding. This has sobering implications for America’s national security.

“By targeting telecommunications providers, hackers can gain a trove of sensitive information, including communications between government officials, military personnel and other high-value targets,” Deeba Ahmed wrote for Hackread. “The compromised data could be used for intelligence gathering, blackmail or other malicious purposes.”

Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry has sounded the alarm for almost 30 years about the dangers of the U.S.’s reliance on computer technologies that are vulnerable to sabotage. In a January 1995 Trumpet article, Mr. Flurry quoted analyst Joseph de Courcy, who labeled cyberdependence “the Western world’s Achilles’ heel”—a reference to the mythological Greek demigod who was susceptible to injury only on his heel.

“America is the greatest superpower this world has ever known,” Mr. Flurry wrote. “But we have a very vulnerable point in our military—our own Achilles’ heel.” This vulnerability “is so dangerous that I am amazed it hasn’t received more publicity” (ibid).

Mr. Flurry said de Courcy’s warning about America’s cybervulnerability reminded him of a Bible prophecy in Ezekiel 7. The prophecy is directed at “the land of Israel” in the time of “the end” (verses 1-3). This refers mainly to modern-day America and Britain, which you can prove with a study of our free book The United States and Britain in Prophecy, by Herbert W. Armstrong. Ezekiel 7 outlines some specific punishments God would send upon these nations due to their “abominations” (verse 8).

“They have blown the trumpet, even to make all ready; but none goeth to the battle: for my wrath is upon all the multitude thereof” (verse 14).

Regarding this verse, Mr. Flurry said: “It seems everybody is expecting our people to go into battle, but the greatest tragedy imaginable occurs! Nobody goes to battle—even though the trumpet is blown! Will it be because of a computer terrorist?”

In the June 1999 issue of the Trumpet, Mr. Flurry again discussed the U.S. military’s dangerous vulnerability to cyberattacks, writing, “We could lose the next war before we even begin ….”

The prospect of the mighty United States being hacked and losing the next war before it begins is bleak beyond words. But the new ability of Chinese hackers to spy on most anyone with a phone, and the untold leverage that gives them over high-profile Americans, shows just how vulnerable this “Achilles’ heel” may be.

To understand more about China’s role in Bible prophecy and the profound hope that is connected to trends now playing out, order a free copy of Mr. Flurry’s book Isaiah’s End-Time Vision.