China's Great Cannon
> <i>We remain puzzled as to why the GC’s operator chose to first employ its capabilities in such a publicly visible fashion.</i><p>This is the most important question here. I think it's fair to assume this must've been a deliberate choice by the Chinese authorities to conduct such a visible attack. The alternative, that they didn't realize what they were getting into, that they thought Github would cave quickly, seems much to simplistic and naive. And whatever else you can say about the Chinese government, you can't accuse them of being naive.<p>If you believe this was deliberate attack, it seems this is a parade demonstrating electronic warfare abilities. The message being sent seems to be, "don't mess with us, we can do everything you can do and possibly more."