China
A pacing threat¹ to American hegemony
slashed with tariffs of 100 percent
—then not.

Chinese hackers
masters of Cyberwarfare
launched Salt Typhoon²
reported in October 2024
worst telecom hack in America’s history
at least eight telecom companies infiltrated.

My little WordPress blog
grabbed viewers from China
four on August 8 then
climbed to 96 by August 30.

Come September the number soared
1716 views on September 15
3347 two days later
the highest number recorded that month.

October showed no loss of interest
2174 views on October 4
2629 six days later
the highest number recorded that month.

What’s up with this attraction?
I don’t follow any bloggers in China.
Did someone share one of my articles
on a Chinese network?

They’re just bots, my techno-savvy son said.
Nothing to worry about.

Internet bots³
computer programs operating on the World Wide Web
invisible robots doing boring stuff for their bosses
shadow thieves harming lives or spies creating havoc.

Are they spiders or web crawlers
indexing my blog content for their search engines?
Maybe a few.
Thousands for over two months?
Seems like overkill.

Are they web scraping crawlers
harvesting data and extracting content
for use on Chatbots?
Possibly.

My suspicious mind says they are
malicious bots—spambots and hackers
searching for sensitive information
harvesting email addresses
installing malware and worms.

I imagine the worst.
I’m totally spooked!

On October 25 the number of views plunged to five.
At month’s end it stabilized at seven.
The Chinese love bomb may have ended
but watchers remain vigilant.
Are they watching you, too?

Footnotes:

1. “US leaders view China as a ‘pacing threat’ − has Washington enough stamina to last the race?” by Andrew Latham, The Conversation, October 29, 2025
2. Salt Typhoon Hacks of Telecommunications Companies and Federal Response Implications
3. “What is a bot?” by Ben Lutkevich for TechTarget Network