China blasts accusation of gov't involvement in cyber attacks

BEIJING, Feb. 9 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese government neither gets involved in nor supports any cyber attack, a high-ranking official with the State Council Information Office said Tuesday, refuting recent western accusations of the government and military's involvement in hacking.

"The government has never supported or been involved in cyber attacks, and it will never do so. Those remarks are sheer nonsense," said Peng Bo, official with the Internet bureau under the Information Office.

Some U.S. experts recently said Chinese military or government agencies might be breaking into computers to steal technology and trade secrets to help state companies.

"The remarks are groundless. In fact, China is the country worst hit by worldwide hackers," Peng told Xinhua.

But Peng stressed that even if an attack was traced to China, it was very likely that the attack was controlled by people from other countries.

"There are tens of thousands of computers in China hijacked by people outside the country," Peng said.