The massive “Salt Typhoon” cyberattack has infiltrated at least 200 American organizations and hundreds more around the world, and a joint international advisory issued by the US and 12 other nations this month identified three 
companies — Sichuan Juxinhe Network Technology (四川聚信和网络科技), Beijing Huanyu Tianqiong Information Technology (北京寰宇天穹信息技术) and Sichuan Zhixin Ruijie Network Technology (四川智信锐捷网络科技) — linked to it.
The three firms provide cyber-related products and services to China’s intelligence services, including multiple units of the PLA and Ministry of State Security.
Salt Typhoon has impacted at least 600 companies in all across at least 80 countries, making it one of the largest espionage operations linked to China in recent years.
While the 
Treasury Department had sanctioned Sichuan Juxinhe in January, the advisory was the first time the other two had been publicly named in connection with global hacking operations.
When sanctioning Sichuan Juxinhe earlier this year, the Treasury Department said the cybersecurity company had “direct involvement” in the Salt Typhoon cyber group and “strong ties” to Ministry of State Security.
Sichuan Zhixin Ruijie, based in Chengdu, Sichuan province, was founded in 2018. It soon thereafter began seeking recognition from local authorities through state-backed programs, and it steadily built government connections in the years before this month’s advisory connected it to Salt Typhoon.
* In 2021, Sichuan Zhixin Ruijie had earned a place on Chengdu’s “Cultivated List” for small and medium-sized enterprises, a designation that confers access to grants, tax incentives and government contracts. The city government’s goal, it wrote in a notice, was to cultivate the selected companies into “specialized and innovative” firms and “hidden champions.”
* At the end of 2022, the Sichuan Provincial Department of Science and Technology recognized Sichuan Zhixin Ruijie as a “high-tech enterprise.” That status entitled it to “enjoy a series of policy preferences and support, including tax exemptions, financial subsidies, project support, talent introduction,” according to a government announcement.
* By 2024, Sichuan Zhixin Ruijie had been recognized on a provincial-level “List of Innovative Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises,” qualifying it for further state support.
The company has at least one documented link to the PLA: in Oct 2023, bidding documents show, it won a PLA contract worth 748,600 yuan (~US$103,000) for a “Mobile Technology Research Simulation Environment.”
A 2022 job posting summed up Sichuan Zhixin Ruijie’s government-oriented business, describing the company as “rapidly growing, primarily serving government and military sectors, and providing customized heavyweight big data information.”
Key personnel connect Sichuan Zhixin Ruijie and Beijing Huanyu Tianqiong, the other newly accused Chinese company.
Yu Yang served as legal representative and the person in charge at Beijing Huanyu Tianqiong until Dec 2021. He then became the controlling shareholder at Sichuan Zhixin Ruijie, with a 50% stake and a supervisor position.

Between 2022 and 2024, after he’d left Beijing Huanyu Tianqiong, Yu was listed as a co-inventor on three cybersecurity-related patents that his old company filed, alongside its founder, Shang Xuejing.
Sichuan province has emerged in recent years as a national hub for state-backed cybersecurity firms.
kharon.com/brief/salt-typ
companies — Sichuan Juxinhe Network Technology (四川聚信和网络科技), Beijing Huanyu Tianqiong Information Technology (北京寰宇天穹信息技术) and Sichuan Zhixin Ruijie Network Technology (四川智信锐捷网络科技) — linked to it.
The three firms provide cyber-related products and services to China’s intelligence services, including multiple units of the PLA and Ministry of State Security.
Salt Typhoon has impacted at least 600 companies in all across at least 80 countries, making it one of the largest espionage operations linked to China in recent years.
While the Treasury Department had sanctioned Sichuan Juxinhe in January, the advisory was the first time the other two had been publicly named in connection with global hacking operations.
When sanctioning Sichuan Juxinhe earlier this year, the Treasury Department said the cybersecurity company had “direct involvement” in the Salt Typhoon cyber group and “strong ties” to Ministry of State Security.
Sichuan Zhixin Ruijie, based in Chengdu, Sichuan province, was founded in 2018. It soon thereafter began seeking recognition from local authorities through state-backed programs, and it steadily built government connections in the years before this month’s advisory connected it to Salt Typhoon.
* In 2021, Sichuan Zhixin Ruijie had earned a place on Chengdu’s “Cultivated List” for small and medium-sized enterprises, a designation that confers access to grants, tax incentives and government contracts. The city government’s goal, it wrote in a notice, was to cultivate the selected companies into “specialized and innovative” firms and “hidden champions.”
* At the end of 2022, the Sichuan Provincial Department of Science and Technology recognized Sichuan Zhixin Ruijie as a “high-tech enterprise.” That status entitled it to “enjoy a series of policy preferences and support, including tax exemptions, financial subsidies, project support, talent introduction,” according to a government announcement.
* By 2024, Sichuan Zhixin Ruijie had been recognized on a provincial-level “List of Innovative Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises,” qualifying it for further state support.
The company has at least one documented link to the PLA: in Oct 2023, bidding documents show, it won a PLA contract worth 748,600 yuan (~US$103,000) for a “Mobile Technology Research Simulation Environment.”
A 2022 job posting summed up Sichuan Zhixin Ruijie’s government-oriented business, describing the company as “rapidly growing, primarily serving government and military sectors, and providing customized heavyweight big data information.”
Key personnel connect Sichuan Zhixin Ruijie and Beijing Huanyu Tianqiong, the other newly accused Chinese company.
Yu Yang served as legal representative and the person in charge at Beijing Huanyu Tianqiong until Dec 2021. He then became the controlling shareholder at Sichuan Zhixin Ruijie, with a 50% stake and a supervisor position.

Between 2022 and 2024, after he’d left Beijing Huanyu Tianqiong, Yu was listed as a co-inventor on three cybersecurity-related patents that his old company filed, alongside its founder, Shang Xuejing.
Sichuan province has emerged in recent years as a national hub for state-backed cybersecurity firms.
kharon.com/brief/salt-typ