China denies renewed US cyber-attack claims

Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi leaves after a news conference in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, China, Saturday. China’s foreign minister has rejected accusations that the country’s military was behind massive hacking attacks on US and other foreign targets and called for more international cooperation in policing the Internet. AP FILE PHOTO

BEIJING — China’s military is denying renewed U.S. accusations of carrying out cyber-attacks and says the sides should cooperate against the global threat of computer crime.

A People’s Liberation Army researcher described the accusations in the latest Pentagon report on the Chinese military as irresponsible and harmful to mutual trust between the sides. Senior Col. Wang Xinjun was quoted by the official Xinhua News Agency on Tuesday as saying the Chinese government and armed forces have never sanctioned hacking.

The annual Pentagon report released Monday included for the first time the claim that at least some attacks on U.S. and other computer systems appeared to be “attributable directly to the Chinese government and military.”

China denies such accusations and says the sides should build trust and mechanisms to fight cybercrime.