China fury over accusations of cyber hacking

Beijing has warned Australia it risks damaging relations by backing US allegations of China cyberhacking.

US Deputy Attorney-General Rod Rosenstein announces fresh indictments of Chinese government hackers who allegedly targeted scores of companies. Pic: AFP

Beijing has warned Australia and other US allies that they risk damaging their relations with China by backing US allegations that the Chinese government has been behind global cyberhacking.

This follows the joint statement by Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne and Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, expressing Australia’s “serious concern about a global campaign” of cyber hacking by a group which they said was acting on behalf of China’s Ministry of State Security.

In a strongly worded statement issued today, China’s Foreign Affairs Ministry has warned that countries should “stop deliberate defamation of China, so as not to damage their bilateral relations and co-operation in important areas.”

The statements from Canberra were part of a globally co-ordinated campaign by Washington which is alleging that two Chinese spies, Zhu Hua and Zhang Shillong, breached the computers of more than 45 companies and government agencies in 12 countries, including Australia.

The joint statement by the two ministers said China’s Ministry of State Security had been backing a group known as APT10, which had undertaken large scale cyber hacking of companies managing IT services and infrastructure for many medium to large organisations, both in Australia and around the world.

The ministers said this was a breach of China’s stated commitment in 2015 not to engage in cyberhacking and theft of intellectual property, trade secrets and confidential business information.

The statements from Canberra were in line with those issued in Washington by US Deputy Attorney-General Rod Rosenstein, after announcements from the US Justice Department of criminal indictments against the two Chinese.

In a statement today, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying attacked the US for issuing “fabricated facts” and blaming China for cyber security issues.

She said the move was a “serious violation of the basic norms of international relations and seriously damages Sino-US co-operation.”

She described the nature of the US comments as “very bad” and said China had already made representations to the US on the issue.

She said the US allegations that the Chinese state had been involved in “cyber stealing” were a “slap in its own face and self-deceiving behaviour which China will never accept.”

She said China was also alarmed that the UK “and other countries” had also taken part in the “rumours” about China cyber security issues.

She said the allegations were “purely out of thin air” and had “ulterior motives.”

“We urged these countries to respect the facts and stop deliberate defamation of China, so as not to damage their bilateral relations and co-operation in important areas.”

“Very bad.” China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying attacks US allegations of cyberhacking.

Anger over the co-ordinated attacks on China from the US and its allies comes as Beijing was

looking forward to new talks with Washington in January to try to settle their trade dispute.

But the strongly-worded attack from the US and its allies, including Australia, and China’s response, could well put the trade talks in jeopardy if Beijing believes it won’t get a fair deal in the negotiations.

Ms Hua said China urged the US to “immediately correct” its “wrong practices” and revoke its prosecution of the two Chinese “to avoid serious damage to the relations between the two countries and the co-operation between the two sides in related fields”.

The attack on China from Australia, the US and other countries also comes amid Chinese anger over the arrest in Canada of Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of telecommunications giant Huawei, for allegedly breaching US sanctions against doing business with Iran.

China has urged Canada to release Ms Meng, who is the daughter of the founder of Huawei, Ren Zhengfei, a former engineer in China’s People’s Liberation Army.

Since her arrest China has arrested two Canadians for endangering state security and detained another Canadian teacher in China for alleged violations of her immigration visa.