X

China accuses US of 'large-scale' cyberspying

A new report from China claims that US "spying operations penetrate every corner" of the country, according to Reuters.

Lance Whitney Contributing Writer
Lance Whitney is a freelance technology writer and trainer and a former IT professional. He's written for Time, CNET, PCMag, and several other publications. He's the author of two tech books--one on Windows and another on LinkedIn.
Lance Whitney
2 min read

070302chinamob.jpg
CNET

China is accusing the US of massive cyberspying a week after the US charged several Chinese military officials with snooping on US companies.

In a new report called "America's Global Surveillance Record," the China Academy of Cyber Space accused US cybersurveillance of targeting "the Chinese government and Chinese leaders, Chinese companies, scientific research institutes, ordinary netizens, and a large number of cell phone users," Reuters reported on Tuesday.

More specific targets of US cyberspying have included Huawei Technologies, the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Tencent Holdings' instant messaging service, according to the report. As one example alleged by the report, the US installed optical fiber bugs in the walls of the Chinese embassy in Australia when the office was built in 1990, Chinese news site China.org.cn said.

The US and China have long hurled accusations of cyberspying against each other. But the US upped the ante early last week when it filed criminal charges against several Chinese military officials, claiming they hacked into corporate servers in the US and swiped American trade secrets. China quickly responded to the charges by denying any wrongdoing and labeling the US a hypocrite in light of its own cybersurveillance tactics.

"America's spying operations have gone far beyond the legal rationale of 'anti-terrorism' and have exposed the ugly face of its pursuit of self-interest in complete disregard for moral integrity," the report said, according to Reuters.

In light of the mounting concerns over cyberspying, the Chinese government is reportedly reviewing the use of high-end IBM servers on the part of Chinese banks. Government agencies in China are asking banks to replace the IBM servers with machines from local companies as part of a test program, four people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.