China Criticizes US For Cyber-Spying Charges, Vows Retaliation
Local Editor
China's Defense Ministry denounced the US for "hypocrisy and double standards" after a first-ever US indictment of Chinese military officers for alleged cyber-espionage, according to Xinhua news agency on Tuesday.
The ministry said in a statement posted on its website on Tuesday that, "From 'WikiLeaks' to the 'Snowden' case, US hypocrisy and double standards regarding the issue of cyber-security have long been abundantly clear."
"The so-called 'commercial espionage network' is a pure fabrication by the US, a move to mislead the public based on ulterior motives," it added.
Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Zheng Zeguang summoned US Ambassador Max Baucus in a meeting on Monday for an explanation, urging him to drop all charges against China's military officers, Xinhua news agency reported.
"The Chinese government and military and its associated personnel have never conducted or participated in the theft of trade secrets over the internet," Zheng reportedly told Baucus as quoted by Xinhua.
Depending on further developments, China "will take further action on the so-called charges by the United States," Zheng told Baucus.
America's attitude to internet security is "overbearing and hypocritical," Zheng said, urging the US to finally give a clear explanation that America's National Security Agency [NSA] is spying on Chinese government, businesses, universities and individuals.
China's Defense Ministry has strongly denied the US allegations, and published its latest data that Washington is stealing data from China.
China's National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team Coordination Center of China [NCNERTTCC] reported that during just two months, from March 19 to May 18, the US directly controlled 1.18 million host computers in China using 2,077 Trojan horse networks or botnet servers.
On Monday, a federal grand jury indicted five members of China's People's Liberation Army on charges that they broke into US computers to benefit Chinese state-owned companies.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
