US accuses China government and military of cyber-spying

China's government and military have targeted US government computers as part of a cyber espionage campaign, a US report on China says.

Intrusions were focused on collecting intelligence on US diplomatic, economic and defence sectors which could benefit China's own defence programme, it says.

This is the first time the Pentagon's annual report has directly linked such attacks to the Beijing government.

China called the report "groundless", saying it represented "US distrust".

A report from state news agency Xinhua cited Sr Col Wang Xinjun, a People's Liberation Army (PLA) researcher, describing the report as "irresponsible and harmful to the mutual trust between the two countries".

Both China and the US were victims of cybercrimes and should work together to tackle the problems, the agency quoted him as saying.

This is the most explicit US statement so far charging that it is the Chinese government and military that are behind at least some of the many intrusions into US government computer systems.

It marks a general toughening of the US position over the course of this year. President Barack Obama raised the cyber-security threat in a telephone call to Chinese President Xi Jinping in March. The issue figured prominently when US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew visited Beijing a few days later.

There have long been fears about China's ability to steal technical and industrial secrets But this latest Pentagon report warns that China's activities go well beyond this "building a picture of US defence networks, logistics and related military capabilities that could be exploited during a crisis."

US experts believe that China's "area denial" strategy - its effort to push US naval forces well away from its shores - could have a significant cyber dimension.

Of course the United States is also rapidly developing capabilities to counter-cyber attacks and to go on the offensive itself. Indeed this is a field where the boundaries between offence and defence are blurred. US Cyber Command is expanding rapidly. The US and others are thought to be behind a number of computer virus attacks against elements of Iran's nuclear programme; a small glimpse of what the future of warfare may look like.

The Pentagon report also criticises a "lack of transparency" in China's military modernisation programme and defence spending.

BBC