China denies US espionage allegations

08:11, November 24, 2009

Less than a week after US President Barack Obama wrapped up his first official visit to China, the two countries have again crossed swords over espionage and currency manipulation, provoked by a report from a US congressional advisory panel.

The annual report on China "disregards facts, is full of bias and has an ulterior motive,"Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in a statement on the ministry's website Monday.

"We advise the so-called commission not to always look at China through tinted glasses and not to do things that interfere in China's internal affairs and undermine Chi-na-US relations,"Qin added.

The 2009 report by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, a bipartisan 12-member board appointed by US Congress, said last week that Chinese spying is "growing in scale, intensity and sophistication"and urges Congress to review the US' ability to meet the "rising challenge"of Beijing's espionage.

"China's peacetime computer exploitation efforts are primarily focused on intelligence collection against US targets,"it said.

The report was released Thursday, one day after Obama left China after a four-day visit. An Associated Press report said, "The commission tends to take a tougher stance on China than either Obama or his predecessor, George W. Bush."

Fu Mengzi, a researcher at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, said, "Some US conservative forces have been discriminative toward China's technological advancement. That is why they frequently make up stories accusing China of stealing US high-technology."

Li Wei, director of the Center for Counterterrorism Studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, said that individuals carried out most of the alleged hacking, and both the US and China are victims.

"The US' boasted ‘highest level of Internet security in the world' is attractive to most hackers, who naturally fancy technical challenges,"Li said. "But it is groundless to accuse China of being the biggest source of attacks.”

The report cited conclusions by Northrop Grumman Corp, one of the Pentagon's top contractors.

Any thorough description of the techniques used for forensic analysis of such suspected cyber espionage was omitted, though it claims to hold "a large body of both circumstantial and forensic evidence.”

The wide-ranging report also said that Beijing was building a navy that could block the US military from reaching the region if fighting should break out between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan.

Wang Baodong, spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington, last week called the commission's suggestion a "Cold War fantasy."

Competition inevitable

More broadly, the 367-page report criticizes China's trade policy, recommending that the US press Beijing to make the yuan more flexible and to turn to the World Trade Organization to fight what it termed predatory trade practices, and blamed China "for the creation of the economic imbalances that helped produce the global financial crisis."

While downplaying the real influence of the commission, which was set up in 2000 to analyze the implications of growing trade with China, Song Xiaojun, a Beijing-based strategy and military analyst, noted that the report comprehensively covers China's development.

"It aims to show that China will threaten the security of the US in every major area, including economics, finance and ideology, as well as military, and that it has already obtained the ability to challenge the US' hegemony,"Song said.

"The content concerning economic issues carries more weight, though the media is in favor of espionage warfare, which brings back cold war memories.”

In a separate espionage case, the US is seeking the release of Chinese-born, American geologist Xue Feng, who was allegedly detained two years ago on State-secrets charges after negotiating the purchase of an oil-industry database.

Chinese authorities say they have solid evidence to prove that Xue violated China's laws.

"Competition between China and the US is inevitable,"Song said. "But it's not likely to provoke any warfare, and a balance of power would be reached in a peaceful process."

Qiu Wei and Zhang Han contributed to this story

Source:Global Times

Beijing claims US congressional report 'very biased'

08:25, November 24, 2009

Beijing said Monday that a U.S. congressional advisory panel is "very biased" in doctoring a report, which accuses China of piercing U.S. computer networks to gather useful data.

The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission alleged in its 2009 report to Congress last week that there was growing evidence of Chinese government involvement in such activity.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said Monday that the congressional report was a twisted and calibrated attack on China.

"This report disregards the facts, is full of bias and has ulterior motives," Qin said in a statement on the ministry's website.

"We advise this so-called commission to not always look at China through tinted glasses and stop interfering with China's internal politics and damaging Sino-U.S. ties," the spokesman added.

The 12-member U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission was set up in 2000 to analyze the implications of growing trade with China. Many reported worked out by the commission holds a critical view of the rising Asian giant country.

In this year's report, the commission accused China of engaging aggressive espionage against the United States, focusing on obtaining American data and know-how to help China's military modernization and economic development, according to a report from the Reuters.

People's Daily Online-Agencies