China attacks "biased" U.S. cyber-spying report

Mon Nov 23, 2009 3:01am EST

BEIJING (Reuters) - China on Monday accused a U.S. congressional advisory panel of bias for a report in which it said the Chinese government appeared increasingly to be piercing U.S. computer networks to gather useful data for its military.

The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission said in its 2009 report to Congress released last week that there was growing evidence of Chinese state involvement in such activity.

But Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said the report was a twisted attack on China.

"This report disregards the facts, is full of bias and has ulterior motives," Qin said in a brief statement on the ministry's website (www.mfa.gov.cn), less than a week after President Barack Obama wrapped up his first official China trip.

"We advise this so-called commission to not always look at China through tinted glasses and stop interfering with China's internal politics and damaging Sino-U.S. ties," he added.

China regularly dismisses such allegations.

The 12-member, bipartisan U.S. commission was set up in 2000 to analyze the implications of growing trade with China.

Beijing had begun to broaden its national security concerns beyond a potential clash across the Taiwan Strait and issues around its periphery, the 367-page report said.

China was the most aggressive country conducting espionage against the United States, focused on obtaining data and know-how to help military modernization and economic development, it added.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard)

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