China declines supporting hackers

The Chinese government has denied allegations of supporting hackers to launch cyber attacks against other countries.

The Chinese defence ministry, while refuting the allegations, has stressed that it is in the common interests of the world to responsibly safeguard international cyber security, the China Daily reported.

A report by US Northrop Grumman for the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, alleged Beijing of funding research to bolster cyber attacks against US military commands and the contractors that serve them, particularly telecommunications systems.

The report issued earlier this month warned that Chinese telecommunications firms also maintained relationships with the People's Liberation Army (PLA), while these companies were giving the PLA access to cutting-edge research and technology.

On Thursday, Defence Ministry spokesman Yang Yujun in a news conference said it's unprofessional and irresponsible to accuse China before verifying the anonymous hackers' identification.

The ministry's remarks came in response to a number of recent reports playing up "China's cyber warfare".

"Cyber sabotage is illegal and forbidden in China, and would be severely punished," Yang said, adding that "China itself is also the victim of cyber attacks."

In 2011, about 47,000 overseas IP addresses controlled nearly 8.9 million computers in China. From January to March this year, the websites of China's Defence Ministry and China Military Online suffered 240,000 cyber attacks, according to the Defense Ministry.