US allegations, reports of cyberattacks rejected

Chinese diplomats on cyber affairs, in conversation with their United States counterparts, have firmly rejected US allegations of cyberattacks, sources said.

The allegations made by the US "lack evidence", the sources told China Daily.

The Chinese diplomats "have expressed concerns about the US targeting China by rolling out large-scale cyber espionage and moves jeopardizing critical information infrastructure", the sources added.

In recent months, some leading US media organizations, including The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post, have claimed that Chinese hackers, as part of a "Chinese government-affiliated group" or campaign that US investigators and researchers have dubbed "Salt Typhoon", intercepted phone calls of US political figures and collected audio recordings.

Even US government officials publicly joined the verbal attacks on China in this regard.

However, cyber affairs experts and policy observers in China pointed out that the US media reports, while falsely linking China to such alleged attacks, also shed light on the scandalous side of US espionage missions by federal agencies, including massive wiretaps.

A report by The Washington Post on Oct 27 said the so-called "Salt Typhoon" group is thought to have targeted "the system that tracks lawful requests for wiretaps made by the federal government of carriers".

Beijing has made public rebuttals against Washington's similar allegations that label China as the perpetrator of cyberattacks against the US.

Shen Yi, a professor at Fudan University in Shanghai and a leading expert on cyberspace governance studies, said, "US intelligence agencies have a typical behavioral pattern in hyping cybersecurity governance and national security issues, which is fabricating facts using false and inaccurate information, and fabricating so-called cyberattacks by other countries."

The objective is to hype security threats and create anxiety, Shen added.

Earlier this month, the US Department of the Treasury sanctioned a Beijing-based cybersecurity company, accusing it of helping Chinese hackers infiltrate US telecommunication systems and conduct surveillance.

At a recent news conference, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said: "We urge the US to stop using the issue of cybersecurity to vilify and smear China. For quite some time, the US has been trumpeting so-called 'Chinese hacking' and even using it to impose illegal and unilateral sanctions on China."