China rejects US cyberattack accusations
Beijing, 20 July 2021 (dpa/MIA) – China has rejected the cyberattack allegations by the United States and its NATO and EU allies, calling them “slander.”
The accusations were unfounded and made for purely political reasons, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said on Tuesday.
China is strictly against any form of cyberattacks, and neither supports nor tolerates them, he added. The spokesperson accused the US of being “the biggest source of cyberattacks worldwide.”
The US backed by NATO and EU allies on Monday condemned a series of cyberattacks allegedly carried out at the behest of the Chinese state, in particular the hacking of Microsoft Exchange servers earlier this year.
The attacks enabled hackers to gain access to computer networks around the world via the Microsoft servers, and are estimated to have affected over a quarter of a million servers worldwide.
Most of the victims were in the private sector, according to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
However, the US government and its allies did not initially announce any consequences such as sanctions against China.
US President Joe Biden has been pushing a tough course against China since he took office. The Biden administration imposed sanctions against Russia in the past because of hacker attacks.