1.   Attrition.org, a service that tracks Web defacements, recorded few attacks on Chinese sites Monday, and only a handful by Chinese hackers on American sites.

2.   Chinese hackers invaded and defaced the web site for the U. S. Embassy in Beijing, the official China Daily reported Tuesday.

3.   Then Chinese hackers, led by a group called the Honkers Union, declared war.

4.   Another reason was because of the Web site vandalism claiming to be caused by Chinese hackers, the company said.

5.   But indepedent Chinese hackers may step up their attacks on U.S. networks in the next few weeks, the official said.

6.   Chinese hackers have previously attacked U.S., Japanese and Taiwanese government Web sites at times of heightened tensions, defacing them with nationalist slogans.

7.   The Chinese hackers are retaliating, the investigators said, for tensions stemming from the U.S. spy plane crash.

8.   The FBI and several security companies have warned companies about a planned, coordinated assault by Chinese hackers on U.S. Web sites this week.

9.   U.S. federal authorities and security companies are warning American businesses to guard against an expected upsurge of attacks from Chinese hackers upset over the spy plane incident.