A high-ranking Chinese official on Tuesday again rejected all accusations of involvement of his government in any hacking attacks against Western companies.
“The government has never supported or been involved in cyber attacks, and it will never do so. Those remarks are sheer nonsense,” said Peng Bo, of the Internet bureau of the State Council’s Information Office.
He rejected accusations by U.S. experts that China’s military or government offices were behind cyber attacks aimed at illicitly acquiring information on technology or trade secrets for the benefit of Chinese state companies.
China itself was the biggest victim of hacking attacks, Peng was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua news agency. “The remarks are groundless,” he said.
Even if an attack was traced to China, it was very likely that people in other countries were controlling the attacks he said.
“There are tens of thousands of computers in China hijacked by people outside the country,” he said.
Peng’s remarks are the latest in a series of Chinese denials of involvement in hacking attacks, following accusations by U.S. Internet giant Google Inc. Google said it had fallen victim of sophisticated cyber attacks originating from China in December.
The company then said it was to reassess its engagement in China and announced it would stop to censor search results of its Chinese search engine.
A recent report to the U.S. Congress said it found evidence hinting at Chinese state involvement in hacking activities.