I am pretty certain that when China used the Great Firewall to attack github, this was a test of their capabilities.

Source?

What a world we live in... Government sponsored DDoS.

What a world live in if you are the 1.x million in som northern part of china. The 1.x billion if live inside Great Wall. The 7m if you are in Hong Kong or 2x million if you are in Taiwan.

You live in a world where a totalitarian communist state is welcomed and controlled a significant portion of the world economy. Even speak in internet summit.

Welcome to the brave new internet and international world of china.

They can be used by blackhats selling e.g. DDoD-netbots to prove the “quality of the merchandise”.

I definitely get the feeling that’s what they’re going for. They mentioned they’re just testing out a new botnet made from IoT devices.

Ah, Mirai Mark N. So what, light bulbs? Cameras?

Where did you read this? I am curious...

From the attacker's twitter account, just read through his/her twitter replies (though it sounds like it's actually a group of them).