China has done what was expected of it, and dismissed the Exchange hack attribution made earlier this week by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and a collection of nations, including the United States, European Union, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Japan.
The attribution marked the first time NATO had publicly attributed an attack to China.
Spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry Lijian Zhao hit back and labelled the United States as the world’s top hacking empire.
The US ganged up with its allies to make groundless accusations out of thin air against China on the cybersecurity issue. This act confuses right with wrong and smears and suppresses China out of political purpose. China will never accept this, he said.
China firmly opposes and combats all forms of cyber attacks. It will never encourage, support or condone cyber attacks. This position has been consistent and clear.
Naturally, this flies in the face of the attribution made on Monday that accused China of using “criminal contract hackers” for its cyber operations.