China angrily denounced the US Congress report, accusing it of stealing nuclear secrets, as a ploy to demonise China and stir up anti-China sentiment in the US.
It also furiously condemned a resolution passed by the Republican-controlled Congress censuring Beijing for the crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square 10 years ago on June 4th.
"We think some people in the United States insist on clinging to the Cold War mentality," the Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mr Zhu Bangzao, told reporters in reaction to reports that the US congressional investigation had accused China of stealing US nuclear weapons design secrets over 20 years.
"They harbour deep prejudice and hostility towards China," he said. "They have created a lot of rumours to try to disturb and destroy Sino-US relations. The goal is to stir up anti-Chinese sentiment by spreading the theory of a China threat."
The flow of accusations of Chinese espionage in the US is one of the factors in the serious tensions now evident in Sino-American relations, exacerbated dramatically by the NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade on May 7th. The Foreign Ministry spokesman also suggested the charges were a ploy to divert attention from the NATO action.
"Under this situation, some Americans have intensified the creation of rumours to exaggerate that China stole US nuclear technology," he said. The Congress report states China had undertaken "a sustained espionage effort" to target US nuclear weapons facilities over several decades and up to the present and had obtained classified information on seven US nuclear warheads and design information for the neutron bomb.
Mr Zhu also accused the US Congress yesterday of "wantonly distorting" facts about the 1989 military crackdown on protesters in Tiananmen Square in a non-binding resolution passed last week by both houses. "China strongly resents and firmly opposes the so-called resolution."
Introduced in both houses of Congress last week, the non-binding resolution condemns Beijing's alleged human rights abuses and seeks an official Chinese inquiry into the June 4th crackdown by the People's Liberation Army in which hundreds of people were killed. The Chinese assessment of the incident is that it amounted to "counter-revolutionary turmoil", later modified to "political disturbances".
The Chinese Communist Party leadership has refused all requests by relatives to change the verdict, which implicitly criticises the victims, and with the sensitive anniversary fast approaching, has sharpened its attacks on NATO, rallying people behind an atmosphere of anti-US fervour. The resolution also called on Beijing to release dissidents from prison, compensate the families of those killed in the crackdown and allow Chinese exiles to return home.
Mr Zhu said the proposers "have wantonly distorted facts about China's human rights conditions. By making irresponsible remarks on China's internal affairs, they have fully revealed their anti-China political face. The Chinese people have already seen through their tricks and the attempt of those anti-China US congressmen to interfere in China's internal affairs under the pretext of human rights is doomed to failure".