The Chinese government has denounced American charges against five of its army officers accused of economic cyber-espionage, accusing the United States of double-standards on issues of surveillance.
Beijing maintains it is more sinned against than sinner when it comes to hacking, and believes the revelations by National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, which showed wide-scale US hacking of Chinese targets, bear out this stance.
The Chinese government summoned the US ambassador after the US accused five Chinese military officers of hacking into American nuclear, metal and solar companies to steal trade secrets.
US ambassador to China Max Baucus met Zheng Zeguang, assistant foreign minister, and said the indictment had seriously harmed relations between the countries.
'Further action'
"The Chinese government and military and its associated personnel have never conducted or participated in the theft of trade secrets over the internet," he told Mr Baucus, warning that China would take "further action on the so-called charges by the United States".
It was the first criminal hacking charge that the United States has filed against specific foreign officials, and follows a steady increase in public criticism and private confrontation, including at a summit last year between President Barack Obama and President Xi Jinping.
The reaction in China was similarly robust.
The Chinese defence ministry said in a statement on its website: “China is a staunch defender of internet security. The Chinese government and military never engaged or involve in any activity to steal any trading secrets through internet. . .
“The US’s deceitful nature and its practise of double standards when it comes to cyber security have long been exposed, from the Wikileaks incident to the Edward Snowden affair.”
“As the most notorious surveillance country, the US indictment of Chinese military officers seems almost insolent in a world still reeling at the scope of the US spy network,” ran a commentary on the Xinhua news agency.
Xinhua insisted that the Chinese military has never engaged in cyber theft of trade secrets.
'Sweeping surveillance'
"Everyone knows that the US itself is the biggest cyber bully, conducting sweeping surveillance around the world . . . China is one of Big Brother's victims. The US routinely attacks, infiltrates and taps Chinese networks belonging to governments, institutions, enterprises, universities and major telecom backbone networks."
