Chinese government hits out at allegations it is spying on Australia’s Federal Parliament

China has called on sections of the media in Australia to “stop tarnishing China’s reputation” by accusing it of cyber hacking.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang indicated that continued allegations that China was behind cyber attacks in Australia could damage the bilateral relationship. Picture: Andy Wong/AP

China has hit out at “unwarranted charges” that it is behind cyber attacks on Federal Parliament.

A spokesman for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Geng Shuang, called on sections of the media in Australia to “stop tarnishing China’s reputation” by accusing it of cyber hacking in Australia.

Mr Geng said people should be careful about making “baseless allegations” that countries like China had been involved in cyber hacking, given the fact that cyberspace was filled with “multiple actors whose behaviours are difficult to trace.”

The spokesman’s comments came at the Prime Minister Scott Morrison said this week that investigations had shown that a “sophisticated state actor” had been responsible for the attack on internet servers at the Federal Parliament in Canberra.

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied last week that it has been behind the attack but reports in some media have continued to speculate that Chinese backed actors have been behind it in the wake of the Prime Minister’s comments this week.

“With the cyberspace being a highly virtual one, filled with multiple actors whose behavior is difficult to trace, one should present abundant evidence when investigating and determining the nature of a cyberspace activity instead of making baseless speculations and firing indiscriminate shots at others,” Mr Geng said.

The spokesman indicated that continued allegations that China was behind cyber attacks in Australia could damage the bilateral relationship.

He said “irresponsible reports” and “accusations” would only “heighten tensions and confrontation in cyberspace and poison the atmosphere for co operation.”

“China is firmly opposed to the reports by certain media using cyber security issues to make unwarranted charges against China and mar China’s image to serve their ulterior motives”, he said.

“We urged the relevant media to stop tarnishing China’s reputation by hyping up the so called “cyber theft” and hacking attacks and refrain from making remarks that undermine China’s interests and its relations with the relevant countries.”

Prime Minister Morrison’s statement about cyber hacking in Federal Parliament come as US vice president Mike Pence has said that the US wanted to make clear to its allies the threat posed by the threat posed by Huawei and other Chinese telecommunications companies.

Australia banned Chinese companies from supplying telecommunications equipment to the next generation 5G network in August.

In New Zealand, telecom operator Spark was prevented from using Huawei equipment for its 5G network while the US has also moved to ban Chinese telecommunications companies from supplying government agencies.

The US vice president said that China’ National Intelligence Law required Chinese companies to provide Chinese security forces with access to any data they required which could be obtained from using their equipment.

In his press conference last night, Mr Geng said there were similar laws in all of the Five Eyes countries including Australia and other Western countries which also required their domestic countries to co operate with their intelligence agencies.

He said the Chinese government told its companies and citizens to strictly abide by local laws when operating in other countries.

“China has not asked and will not ask companies and individuals to collect or provide data, information and intelligence stored within other countries territories for the Chinese government by installing ‘backdoors’ or by violating local laws,” he said.