Members of the People’s Liberation Army were accused of exposing sensitive information including social security numbers in the 2017 hack and of stealing trade secrets from Equifax. China typically denies involvement in alleged U.S. hacks, but the Chinese Embassy in Washington did not reply to a request for comment. (The Wall Street Journal)

Talking point: The indictments, announced by U.S. Attorney General William Barr, come as the U.S. is trying to convince allies that China’s technological rise poses a variety of national security threats. The U.S. has banned its army from using TikTok, grounded Chinese drones, blacklisted the telecom Huawei and sought to curtail the use of Chinese surveillance cameras in government institutions. It now claims the Equifax data could be used to target government officials, though it’s seen no evidence of that happening. The American government also believes China was involved in a hack of hundreds of millions of records from hotel company Marriott and is preparing an indictment over that incident, as well.