China Communist paper rejects hacking allegations

BEIJING (AFP) – The official mouthpiece of China’s ruling Communist Party on Monday roundly rejected claims of hacking attacks from China by American media outlets, hinting instead at ulterior motives by the US.

The People’s Daily article echoed vehement government rejections last week after The New York Times and Wall Street Journal linked Beijing to cyberattacks and the Washington Post accused Chinese hackers of targeting it.

The front page Chinese-language commentary in the People’s Daily, which could not be found on its English website, said: “Even those with little understanding of the Internet know that hacking attacks are transnational and concealable.

“IP addresses simply do not constitute sufficient evidence to confirm the origins of hackers,” it added.

The paper accused the US of fanning “fear of China” out of self-interest, saying that it has invoked national security as a justification for trade protectionism and economic sanctions.

“America keeps labelling China as hackers, simply playing up the rhetoric of the ‘China threat’ in cyberspace, providing new justification for America’s strategy of containing China,” it added.

The article repeated the Beijing government’s position that China is also a victim of hacking, saying that there were more attacks from US-based IP addresses on Chinese websites in December than from any other country.

Despite this, it said, “China did not draw simple inferences or hasty conclusions about the attack source.”