China slams US criticism on cyber security

BEIJING - A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman on Wednesday slammed a US commission's annual report criticizing China over cyberspace security.

"This commission always sticks to the Cold War mentality," Hong Lei said at a regular press briefing in reference to an annual publication released by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission the same day.

Labelling the criticism of China over cyberspace security "groundless," Hong said China urges the commission to discard prejudice, respect facts and stop words and activities that interfere with China's internal affairs and harm Sino-US ties.

"China has stated on many occasions that it firmly opposes cyber attacks of any form and has made laws to ban it," Hong said, adding that China also falls victim to hacking.

He added that the commission's repeated release of such "irresponsible" and "misleading" reports has not helped protect against cyber attacks or enhance Sino-US mutual trust on cyberspace security issues.

China always upholds that countries should conduct practical cooperation on the basis of mutual respect to cope with cyberspace security issues, which are global problems, he said, noting China and the United States have worked together to crack down on cyber crimes through various channels.

According to media reports, the commission urged tighter screening of investment by Chinese state-owned companies in the United States, and recommended that the US Congress conduct an in-depth assessment into "Chinese cyber espionage practices."