New Chinese Intelligence Unit Linked to Massive Cyber Spying Program-NON DARE CALL IT WAR

New Chinese Intelligence Unit Linked to Massive Cyber Spying Program

Axiom likely a Ministry of State Security spy unit

BY: Bill Gertz  
October 31, 2014 5:00 am

Non Dare Call It War

A Chinese intelligence unit carried out a massive cyber espionage program that stole vast quantities of data from governments, businesses and other organizations, security analysts who uncovered the operation said Thursday.

The activities of the Chinese unit called the Axiom group began at least six years ago and were uncovered by a coalition of security firms this month.

Cyber sleuths traced Axiom attacks to the 2009 cyber operation against Google in China and other U.S. companies known as Operation Aurora. The group was also linked to a Chinese hacking program that targeted dissidents and opposition groups known as GhostNet. More recent Axiom attacks took place against Japan, the U.S. Veterans of Foreign Wars, and U.S. think tanks.

In the past two weeks, 43,000 computer networks at nearly 1,000 organizations were cleaned of multiple types of cyber espionage spyware from Axiom cyber spies, including 180 highly sophisticated computer penetrations at key Chinese targets that employed a program called Hikit that specializes in automated data theft.

Investigators found that the Chinese used up to four different types of malicious software in a single information-stealing operation, and a total nine different types of spying malware overall, ranging from rudimentary to very sophisticated.

The group conducting the attacks is “a truly advanced hacker,” said Zachery Hanif, a cyber security expert with Novetta, a Virginia-based company that was one of the first to identify Axiom cyber attacks.

“We believe they are a highly sophisticated and very prolific cyber espionage team,” Hanif said in an online briefing for reporters. “We certainly have a moderate to high degree of confidence that the [Axiom] tasking is part of the Chinese intelligence apparatus.”

An FBI alert issued Oct. 15 bolsters the commercial findings. The alert states that the Bureau has high confidence that the new unit is “a group of Chinese government affiliated cyber actors who routinely steal high value information from U.S. commercial and government networks through cyber espionage.”

The FBI said the new group differs from the Chinese military hacking unit known as PLA Unit 61398 by operating in an “exceedingly stealthy and agile” fashion, compared to the military unit.

“This Chinese government affiliated group previously documented by private sector reports by the names of Operation Deputy Dog, Snowman, Ephemeral Hydra, APT17, Bit9, Google security alerts and parts of Hidden Lynx, has heavily targeted the high tech information technology industry including microchip, digital storage and networking equipment manufacturers, as well as defense contractors in multiple countries and multinational corporations,” the FBI said.

Hanif said attributing the Axiom spying to a specific Chinese intelligence agency is difficult because of problems involved in making direct attributions in cyberspace to specific actors.

But during the briefing Hanif said indicators of Axiom revealed activities that were aligned with Chinese government five-year economic and technological development plans.

Hanif said detailed analysis of software and digital attack methods of the group against specific targets reveals the activities are “heavily aligned with what’s been published as strategic interests for the Chinese government.”

China’s targets included Asia and western governments, specifically communications agencies, aerospace and space research, law enforcement, personnel management, and government auditing and internal affairs.

Using proxy servers in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, the United States and Europe, Axiom cyber spies sought data and technology form the following targets:

♦ Electronics and integrated circuits

♦ Network equipment manufacturers

♦ Internet service companies

♦ Software vendors

♦ News media and journalism organizations

♦ Non-governmental organizations

♦ International consulting and analysis firms

♦ International law firms

♦ Telecommunications firms

♦ Manufacturing conglomerates

♦ Venture capital firms

♦ Energy companies

♦ Meteorological services

♦ Cloud computing firms

♦ Pharmaceutical firms; and

♦ U.S. academic institutions

Axiom is the first published disclosure of civilian Chinese cyber spying.

A Chinese military intelligence group known as the Third Department of the People’s Liberation Army has been identified in the past as directing major Chinese cyber spying units in U.S. cyber attacks.

Analysis of Axiom’s activities reveals that new unit is likely a part of China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS), the powerful Communist Party-controlled political police and intelligence service that was modeled after the Soviet Union’s KGB.

A Novetta report on Axiom said the group conducted cyber operations against perceived opponents of the Beijing regime located both abroad and in China–key indicators of MSS sponsorship.

The report did not identify specific victims but published reports going back to 2009, as well as the attacks on Google and other U.S. companies, reveal that many of the companies were Fortune 500 firms.

U.S. government agencies that were hacked by the Chinese also were not identified.

To highlight the sophistication of the group, the Novetta report reveals Axiom employed six different types of cyber intelligence specialties: reconnaissance specialists, initial cyber break-in experts, specialists who navigated within targeted networks, experts who set up special systems inside compromised networks, information specialists who identified and stole data, and those who helped maintain clandestine access over long periods of time.

Brian Bartholomew, a cyber security expert with iSight Partners, a company that took part in a coalition of security firms that exposed and countered Axiom operations, said beginning in mid-October that the group launched an effort to expunge Axiom’s malware in an effort to degrade the group’s activities.

“The hope was to throw a large wrench into their engine, and cause them to take the time to basically take a step back and hit the reboot button and spend a large amount of resources to fix things and get back up and running,” Bartholomew said.

Security firms involved in the counter-Axiom effort, dubbed Operation SMN, included the security firms Bit9, Cisco Systems, F-Secure, FireEye, Tenable, ThreatConnect, ThreatTrack, and Volexity, in addition to Novetta and iSight.

The joint efforts of the group effort were successful in rooting out a lot of Axiom malware, Bartholomew said.

As a result, the Chinese cyber unit is now being forced to develop new malware and to find new compromised networks that it can use as proxies, along with developing new victims to target, he said.

The companies and entities that were infected by the Chinese malware were notified of the Axiom attack.

NORTH AMERICA’S FIRST CHINESE RENMINBI CURRENCY HUB PROPOSED FOR VANCOUVER........NO WAY!

 No Way!

NORTH AMERICA’S FIRST CHINESE RENMINBI CURRENCY HUB PROPOSED FOR VANCOUVER

BY KENNETH CHAN | 8:30 AM PST, FRI OCTOBER 31, 2014 | SPEAK UP

 

The Vancouver Economic Commission (VEC) has released a new report that presents a case for the city of Vancouver to become Canada’s Chinese renminbi currency hub – the first hub of its kind in the Americas.

Currently, Canadian businesses are hampered by the inability to perform business transactions through converting the Canadian dollar into the Chinese renminbi. The renminbi is not traded freely on global financial markets, meaning there are foreign exchange costs for businesses between Canadian and Chinese companies.

A currency hub in the country means Canadian businesses would be able to purchase the renminbi directly by using the Canadian dollar, reducing costs by potentially billions per year with the eradication of the need to go through foreign exchange transactions. It will reduce supply chain costs, increase bargaining power and create more favourable and transparent pricing of goods.

Within the integrated Asian regional economic bloc, the U.S. dollar is increasingly being replaced by the renminbi as the currency of choice for conducting economic and financial activity. The renminbi is in the process of internationalization and becoming a stable global alternative to the U.S. dollar.

A currency hub would also complement continuing efforts to increase trade between both countries, as evident with the recent approval of the landmark Canada-China Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement. In 2013, Canada-China bilateral trade reached 4.5 per cent or CAD$73.2 billion – approximately 8 per cent of Canada’s total trade.

A financial institution with a presence in either Vancouver or Toronto will be designated as the currency hub. HSBC’s Canadian headquarters and the Agricultural Bank of China’s Canadian representative office are both located in Vancouver while the Bank of China’s Canadian headquarters are located in Toronto.

The report asserts Vancouver is a natural choice for the location of the currency hub given both the provincial and federal government’s long-term plan to strategically place Vancouver as Canada’s economic, transportation and social gateway to the Asia-Pacific realm.

“Vancouver is advantageously positioned as Canada’s Asia Pacific Gateway, and the VEC sees tremendous opportunity to further leverage this advantage as growth in trade with Asia, driven primarily by China, continues to outpace other regions,” said VEC CEO Ian McKay in a statement.

The provincial government has been a major actor with encouraging Chinese businesses to establish a presence and investments in British Columbia. In addition, it has provided Schedule III banks (bank branches of foreign bank institutions) with tax incentives through the B.C. International Business Activity program: as a result it is expected, that more Schedule III banks will open branches in Vancouver within the near future.

For Vancouver, a renminbi currency hub in the city could put Vancouver on the map for both Canadian and Chinese businesses as an advantageous place to locate commercial activities with China. It could also reinforce the B.C.’s financial links with China and assist the natural resource industry.

“Facilitating the settlement of these transactions in RMB via a local hub would provide additional incentive for Chinese companies to do business here, and likewise provide a competitive edge for local companies accessing Asian markets,” McKay added.

However, any decision on the location of a currency hub lies with the federal government’s Department of Finance, which indicated in June 2014 that it is in discussion with the Chinese government on establishing an renminbi currency hub in Canada.

Foreign renminbi currency hubs are relatively new creations. The first hub outside of the Chinese Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau opened at Taipei, Taiwan in 2010. Since then, other hubs have opened in Singapore, London, Frankfurt, Seoul, Paris and Luxembourg.

A currency hub in Sydney serving the Australian market was recently improved and more hubs are also being considered for Dubai, Kuala Lumpur, Paris, Zurich and San Francisco.

Chinese boy, 6, has his eyes GOUGED OUT after being 'kidnapped

Parents' horror as Chinese boy, 6, has his eyes GOUGED OUT after being 'kidnapped by organ trafficker who stole both his corneas'

 

• Youngster snatched while playing outside home in Linfen, Shanxi Province
• Parents found him three hours later screaming in a field covered in blood
• Kidnapper reportedly told boy: 'Don’t cry and I won’t gouge out your eyes'
• Illicit trade fuelled because China has 300,000 on transplant waiting list
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By MAIL FOREIGN SERVICE

PUBLISHED: 12:01 GMT, 27 August 2013 

organ traffickers gouged out the eyes of a six-year-old boy to sell on China’s transplant black market, it was claimed yesterday.

Police said the child, Binbin, was drugged after being kidnapped while playing outside his home.

His family found him covered in blood and crying in pain three to four hours later. His eyes were found nearby with the corneas missing, police say, implying that an organ trafficker was behind the attack.

Scroll down for video

 

Horrific: The Chinese boy lies in hospital after he had his eyes gouged out

Recovering: The youngster was playing alone outside his home in Linfen, Shanxi Province, when he was snatched on Monday evening

An entire eye cannot be transplanted, but a cornea could be vital for a patient with faltering vision.

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Police are seeking a woman suspect and have offered £10,500 for information leading to an arrest.

300,000-STRONG ORGAN WAITING LIST FUELS BLACK MARKET TRADE

About 300,000 patients in China need transplants each year, but only about 10,000 people can get them due to a lack of donors, state media said.

Few Chinese agree to donate their organs after death, fuelling the rampant illegal market activity.

Child organs are usually more expensive on the black market, an organ trafficker told Sina Internet news portal in 2010, as 'most people think the younger the donor is, the better the quality of organs'.

Seven people were jailed last year when a teenager sold a kidney for an illicit transplant operation and used the proceeds to buy an iPhone and iPad.

Binbin’s devastated father said: ‘We didn’t notice his eyes were gone when we discovered him – he had blood all over his face. We thought he had fallen down and smashed his face.’

The boy was rushed to hospital where doctors were shocked to find his eyes had been removed. His father said: ‘His eyelids were turned inside out, and his eyeballs were not there.’ 

Illegal organ harvesting is booming in China, where there is a shortage of donors, and last night, amid domestic and international outrage, Beijing was urged to crack down on the country’s multi-million-pound transplant industry.

Binbin was shown on state TV  being taken in bandages from an operating theatre to a hospital bed, writhing in agony as his shocked family wept.

China Central Television said he had been drugged and ‘lost consciousness’ before the attacker removed his eyes.

His parents discovered he was missing when they called for him to come in around 8pm on Monday but received no response.

Mortified: Relatives of the youngster talk to a nurse. His parents realised he was missing when they tried to call hm inside the house but received no response

'Extraordinarily vicious': The child's eyes were found nearby but the corneas were missing, reports said, implying that an organ trafficker was behind the harrowing attack

After a frantic search with relatives, they found him screaming in a field near their home in Fenxi, north China. The kidnapper had reportedly told Binbin: ‘Don’t cry and I won’t gouge out your eyes.’

WHY DID THEY TAKE THE CORNEAS?

The organ trafficker may have been motivated by money.

But they could also have been driven to such a horrific crime by the hope of saving someone's sight - or even their own.

Problems with the cornea - the clear front part of the eye - can cause the eye to mist up and, if left untreated, lead to blindness.

But the most serious conditions such as Fuchs' dystrophy, a degenerative condition that affects older people, can be cured with a transplant, above (file picture).

Until recent years, the only operation was a full cornea transplant, an operation that involved 24 stitches in each eye and an 18-month recovery period.

But advances in technology have meant surgeons can now carry out a partial replacement under local anaesthetic with a recovery time of just four weeks.

China does not have a donor culture, but about 300,000 patients need transplants each year. Only about 10,000 receive organs, mainly taken from death-row prisoners. 

Though the sale and transplant of organs for money is prohibited, lax laws and widespread corruption have fuelled a booming industry.

China is also a leading destination for ‘transplant tourists’ who travel there to obtain organs.

Last night international doctors appalled by Binbin’s suffering called on leading medical journals to ban publication of Chinese research papers on organ transplants, to shame the country into tackling the problem.

Professor Arthur Caplan, head of medical ethics at New York University and spokesman for Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting, said: ‘As unimaginable and untrue as this boy’s torment sounds, it shocks but does not surprise.

‘Whereas hearts, livers and kidneys must be sourced from donors who match the same blood and body type of recipient patients, in-demand corneas for corrective eyesight operations can be taken from any age and body type.

‘Anyone who knows where the corneas are located in the eye can extract them, and I fear for the unsterile conditions and the  barbaric methods used, and that infection may add to the boy’s suffering.

‘He will suffer unthinkable physical and psychological pain.’

Professor Caplan urged international governments to ‘stand up to China’ and take action to make it clean up its transplant industry.

‘Transplant tourists who travel to China with the right amount of money can order the organ needed,’ he said. ‘A prisoner is found to match the recipient and is taken out and shot.’

Last weekend, Chinese police detained members of a kidney- trafficking ring, including a team of four doctors and nurses.

Boy's eyes gouged out after being 'kidnapped by organ trafficker'

Distraught: The boy's father found his son screaming in a nearby field with blood covering his face\

Despair: The boy's mother hugs a relative at the hospital after her son's injuries were revealed

China’s Viral, Minute-Long Sex Ed Videos

BY LIZ CARTER ON NOVEMBER 5, 2013

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A collection of sex education videos have just gone, ahem, viral on the Chinese Internet. On Oct. 29, a three-person team calling itself the “Nutcracker Studio” released three one-minute clips addressing tough topics in childhood sex education, such as “Where Do Babies Come From?”, “Why Are Boys Different from Girls?”, and (the far less lighthearted) “How Minors Can Prevent Molestation.” Funded by the popular Chinese tech site Guokr, the “One-Minute Sex Ed” videos rose to become the second most popular search on Baidu, China’s largest search engine, and have drawn over one million views on Youku, China’s YouTube

These slickly produced videos, which depict a hand drawing cartoon figures, are likely not aimed at young ones, but instead at parents searching for narratives to pass on to their children: The rapid-fire voiceovers use some high-school level vocabulary, including two bleeped cusswords hopefully outside most primary school students’ lexicon. Given a widespread reluctance to talk birds and bees — in China’s version of the stork story, parents often tell children that they were picked up “out of a garbage dump” — the Nutcracker narrator is something of a myth-buster for the young and for the ill-informed. The language and visual illustrations have amused adult viewers with hilariously off-color comparisons: In the first video, the narrator explains insemination by comparing it to an injection received at a hospital. The second clip, called “Why Are Boys and Girls Different?” addresses anatomical differences by likening male and female reproductive organs to electrical outlets and plugs. (The caption on the photo, from the second video, states: “Why does that boy have a little pee-pee and you don’t?”)

Because of China’s long-standing need for accessible, accurate sex ed, young adults might also find them edifying. On Sept. 29 Hu Zhen, an academic specializing in sex education issues, told China’s largest state-run news agency, Xinhua, that sex education in Chinese schools lagged “at least 60 years behind” Sweden and other developed countries, and emphasized that only about ten of China’s 180,000 primary schools, and only 500 to 600 of China’s approximately 500,000 secondary schools, were providing sex education. Three short video clips, embedded below, won’t hasten the plodding progress of sex education in China’s state system. But given the dearth of open and frank discourse about sex in China, Internet users there may be happy to take what they can get.

- See more at: http://www.tealeafnation.com/2013/11/chinas-viral-minute-long-sex-ed-videos/#sthash.6yk9htBY.dpuf

A mother and son go toy shopping in Shanghai. False promises to buy toys are among the most common lies parents tell their kids, both in China and in the United States. (AP)

Is It Okay for Parents to Lie to Their Kids?China's Parents Say Yes

EMILY ESFAHANI SMITHFEB 11 2013

 New research suggests that while a majority of American parents admit to lying to their kids, almost all Chinese parents do—and Chinese parents tend to see less harm in it, too.

When Amy Chua was a little girl, her parents told her lies. They told her that if she did not get straight-A grades at school, she would wind up on the streets—or that if she got into the car of someone she did not know, she would be kidnapped.

In an interview with me, Chua elaborates. "They wouldn't so much lie as exaggerate... wild exaggerations to point of untruths," she says. Her parents, Chinese immigrants to the United States, "were paranoid about safety."

Chua, a professor at Yale Law School, is probably best known today for being a "tiger mom." "Tiger mothering," a strict way of raising children, is why Asians have such "stereotypically successful children"—so Chua argued in her controversial 2011 book, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. Unlike "your typical Western overscheduling soccer mom," Chua writes, Chinese mothers leave no margin for error: Schoolwork comes first; parents, teachers, and coaches are always right; children should not be complimented in public; and A-minuses and silver medals are unacceptable. Chua wrote in her book that she did not allow her daughters, Sophia and Louisa (Lulu), to attend a sleepover, watch TV, or have play dates. Her strict parenting methods shocked Western parents.

Now, there seems to be yet another difference between Chinese and American parenting methods. According to a new study published in the International Journal of Psychology, Chinese parents also lie more to their children to get them to do what they (the parents) want—and they approve of this practice more than American parents do.

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The Ethical Implications of Parents Writing About Their Kids

The study, by Gail Heyman of the University of California-San Diego and her colleagues, examined the lying patterns of 114 American parents and 85 Chinese parents who had at least one child three years old or older. The researchers found that in the United States, 84 percent of parents admitted to telling their children lies to promote behavioral compliance, while in China, 98 percent of parents admitted to doing so. In a 2009 study of American parents, 78 percent of parents admitted to lying to their children—and parents who claimed to be committed to teaching their kids that lying is always wrong were just as likely to lie as other parents.

In Heyman's study, the most common lie parents told was, "If you don't come with me now, I will leave you here by yourself." At least two thirds of the parents from both countries admitted telling their kids that untruth. Both groups also frequently made the false promise to buy a toy that the child asked for. More than half of the American parents and three-quarters of the Chinese parents said they would respond to such requests by promising to come back to buy the toy another time, even when they had no intention of doing so.

The researchers looked at three general types of lies: instrumental lying, or lying to promote compliance ("If you don't behave, I will call the police"); comparison lies, or lying to make kids feel better about themselves ("It's not your fault the plate broke," when actually it was the child's fault); and lying about fantasy characters ("Your fairy Godmother can see all the things that you do").

Though parents from both countries lied across all three categories, the only category in which Chinese parents lied significantly more was in instrumental lying—or lying to get the child to behave in a way that the parent wants. One Chinese parent from the study justified instrumental lying by saying, "When teaching children, it is okay to use well-intentioned lies. It can promote positive development and prevent your child from going astray."

Sixty-eight percent of Chinese parents reported having told the lie Chua's parents told her about being kidnapped, but only 18 percent of American parents did. Another lie that far more Chinese parents than American parents (61 percent versus 10 percent) reported telling their kids was, "Finish all your food or you'll grow up to be short." A particularly graphic lie that only 4 percent of Americans tell their kids but one-fifth of Chinese parents admitted to threatening their children with was, "If you don't behave, we will throw you into the ocean to feed the fish."

Of the 16 instrumental lies the researchers asked about, the only lie that more American than Chinese parents reported telling their kids was related to junk food: "There's no more candy in the house" (when there really is). Nearly six out of 10 American parents admitted to that lie, compared to about four out of 10 Chinese parents.

While both the American and Chinese parents expressed disapproval of children lying to parents, Chinese parents disapproved far more than American parents.

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So why do Chinese parents lie more? Might there be a fundamental cultural difference in how Chinese parents and Western parents view their children and their relationship to those children?

The Chinese parenting style, as Chua made clear in her book, is focused on instilling in the child respect, obedience, and a strict adherence to what Mom and Dad think best. Heyman tells me, "In China, children are expected to show much greater compliance with the expectations of their parents, and Chinese parents may go to greater lengths to make this happen."

There's another cultural factor at work—individualism, or the lack thereof. In the west, individualism is a sacred value. In China, the sacred unit is the community; individuals are simply part of that greater whole. A 2007 study found that Chinese children were more likely to disapprove of lies that benefited an individual as opposed to the group, while Canadian children were more likely to disapprove of lies that benefited the group rather than the individual. For instance: The children were presented with a story about the fictional Susan, whose job it is to decide who would represent her class in a spelling bee at her school. Mike, Susan's friend, is a bad speller, but he wants to be part of the competition. Canadian students opted to advise Susan to help her friend by telling her teacher to pick Mike for the team, while Chinese students put the class first by responding that Susan should tell her teacher Mike is a bad speller.

"Western parents tend to view their kids as full individuals with decision-making powers—almost more as equals," Chua tells me. "When I was growing up, my parents didn't see me as equal," she says. "They knew my interests better, so I would have my preferences overridden and [I was] not consulted." By contrast, the parents of her American husband, fellow Yale Law professor Jed Rubenfeld, "gave him more respect, respecting his choices and personality."

Many American parents consider anything that violates the autonomy of the child, like lying, a violation of the child's individualism and, therefore, morally wrong. This explains why American parents are less approving of the practice of instrumental lying than Chinese parents are. Interestingly, even when American parents do lie, they justify their lies by saying that the lies wouldpromote the individualism of the child. Some American parents Heyman spoke to said lying "makes children more imaginative and less literal-minded...it teaches children to be appropriately skeptical... [and] it teaches them the reality of the social world."

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The tiger mother does not approve of instrumental lying. Chua tells me that she and Rubenfeld "definitely don't lie to our children. They're so smart that we would lose credibility." Chua's older daughter, Sophia, is a sophomore at Harvard majoring in philosophy and Sanskrit. Lulu, 17, is a junior in high school with a passion for violin and writing. "I'm not morally opposed to it," Chua says about such lying. "I just don't think it would work." The lies Chua's own parents told her backfired: "Every time my parents said I would be kidnapped if I did this or that, I just got more reckless."

Chua advocates complete honesty. "Tiger mothers are actually more truthful—we don't sugar coat," Chua tells me. Recently, for example, Lulu was working on an essay for class about a short story. Chua read the essay and told Lulu that the point she was making was cliché—it was not as interesting as Lulu thought it was.

Or consider an example from when Lulu and Sophia were much younger: Chua, Rubenfeld, and the girls were at a restaurant together for Chua's birthday dinner. Chua was dipping her bread in some olive oil when Sophia and Lulu presented their makeshift birthday cards to the tiger mom. The cards were pieces of paper folded in two with half-hearted "Happy Birthdays" written in them. Lulu gave hers first. Chua took one look at the card and said, "I don't want this." It was not good enough. She then said, "I reject this," and threw the card back at Lulu, who was about four years old at the time. Sophia, whose card was not good enough either, was probably seven. Chua said to her, "That's nice, Sophia, but not good enough either."

Later that night, the girls redeemed themselves. They presented Chua with far more thoughtful cards that she still has—a tiger-mom victory, and a victory for Chua's complete-honesty policy.

When it came to lies that parents told their kids to make their kids feel better about themselves, American parents are less truthful than their Eastern peers in one notable domain: in telling their kids how accomplished they are at a musical instrument. Sixty percent of American parents, compared to half of Chinese parents, would tell their kids "That was beautiful piano playing," when it was in fact truly awful.

This was one of the only lies that fewer Chinese parents reported telling their kids—and if you've read Chua's book, you won't be surprised. When she was seven years old, Lulu had been struggling for days to play a complicated piece on the piano called "The Little White Donkey," with little to no progress. While an American mom may have softly encouraged Lulu or even have told Lulu that she was doing well, Chua took a different course: "When she still kept playing it wrong," Chua writes, "I told her she was purposely working herself into a frenzy because she was secretly afraid she couldn't do it. I told her to stop being lazy, cowardly, self-indulgent and pathetic." Chua was just as harsh to Sophia, who played the piano too. A criticism that Chua shared with her oldest daughter back in the day: "Oh my God, you're just getting worse and worse."

The strategy may be blunt, but it is effective. Lulu mastered "The Little White Donkey" and played it at a recital several weeks after things nearly came to blows with the tiger mom. Sophia, for her part, performed at Carnegie Hall in 2007.

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Apart from the practical concern—that instrumental lying will not work so brutal honesty is better—there is also the moral concern. Is it ever ok to lie to your children?

"Young children are sensitive to how reliable people are when they decide whether to trust them," as Heyman, herself a mother of three, tells me. Such lying "may undermine children's trust in their parents." On top of that, it may encourage children to lie more themselves.

In fact, it probably does encourage them to lie more—but that might not be such a bad thing. "The reality is, we all teach our kids to lie from time to time," Dan Ariely tells me. "Nobody tells their kids that the answer to "How do I look in that dress?" should be the perfect truth." Ariely, a professor of behavioral economics at Duke University, is the author of The (Honest) Truth About Dishonest: How We Lie to Everyone—Especially Ourselves. "Some dishonesty in the social realm is important," he tells me.

Chua has learned that the hard way. Once, when Sophia acted disrespectfully toward her, Chua called her "garbage" (as Chua's father had called her "garbage" when Chua had behaved disrespectfully to her own mother). When Chua shared this parenting trick with her friends at a dinner party, she was immediately ostracized. One woman at the party started crying and left early.

While lying may have its place in the social sphere, Chua stands by her policy of complete honesty toward her children. It may mean a social sacrifice for the tiger mom, but the payout to her tiger cubs is worth it—a lesson that parents who are tempted to lie might want to remember.