China has dismissed a research report outlining an extensive China-based computer spy ring as lies intended to stoke anxiety over Beijing's growing influence in world affairs.
In the government's first reaction to the report by Canadian researchers, foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said the conclusions were symptoms of a "Cold War virus" that causes people overseas to "occasionally be overcome by China-threat seizures."
The
Information Warfare Monitorreport released Saturday said that a network, based mainly in China, hacked into classified documents from government and private organizations in 103 countries, including the computers of the Dalai Lama and his exiled Tibetan government.
Speaking at a routine media briefing, Mr Qin did not directly respond to questions about whether the network existed and if its actions were supported by the government. Instead, he said Beijing was opposed to criminal activities that compromise computer networks and attacked the report for suggesting otherwise.
"China pays great attention to computer network security and resolutely opposes and fights any criminal activity harmful to computer networks, such as hacking," Mr Qin said. "Some people outside China now are bent on fabricating lies about so-called Chinese computer spies."
"Their attempt to tarnish China with such lies is doomed to failure," he said.
The Canadian researchers said that while evidence pointed to China as the main source of the network, it has not conclusively been able to detect the identity or motivation of the hackers.
The group's work initially focused on allegations of Chinese cyber espionage against the Tibetan exile community but eventually traced a much wider network of compromised machines.
Asked if China would nevertheless investigate the group's claims, Mr Qin said: "You asked if we will investigate or track down these criminals. I think it is high time to track down those people who've been attacked by the virus I talked about."
Reuters