The Chinese government has denied any involvement in the attacks on Gmail earlier this month.
A Chinese industry ministry spokesman said that claims that Beijing was behind the cyberattacks were “groundless”.
“The accusation that the Chinese government participated in [any] cyber attack, either in an explicit or inexplicit way, is groundless. We [are] firmly opposed to that [and] China’s policy on internet safety is transparent and consistent,” the spokesman told China’s Xinhua news agency.
The spokesman went on to accuse the US of double standards, asking if it wasn’t true that ‘even in the United States, the homeland of Google, certain government agencies are also reported of often entering a massive number of personal email accounts with certain excuses?’
The dig comes in response to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s call last week for Beijing to investigate the cyberattacks on Google.
“We look to Chinese authorities to conduct a thorough investigation of the cyber intrusions,” said Clinton, adding that China was at risk of ‘walling themselves off from the progress of the next century’.
