China denies fresh allegations of computer hacking

China on Tuesday dismissed fresh allegations that Chinese hackers linked to the state are regularly attacking and infiltrating foreign governments' computer systems, saying the allegations are ''groundless.''

Liu Jianchao, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, told a regular reporters briefing in Beijing that China opposed all computer hacking and that the government will get in touch with the German authorities, who are behind the latest accusations, so they can clarify their remarks.

The vice president of Germany's domestic intelligence service, Hans Elmar Remberg, told a conference on industrial espionage in Berlin on Monday that the Chinese state is behind almost daily attacks on German government and commercial computer networks.

His comments came after a German magazine quoted unnamed security officials as saying in August that hackers linked to the People's Liberation Army had infiltrated a number of German government computer networks, including the Germany Chancellery.

Similar accusations against Chinese hackers were later made in the press by unnamed British and U.S. government officials.

Liu said, ''I hope that when people make these kind of accusations they are more responsible, more responsible for their own opinions. China will be in touch with the German authorities to clarify what is meant by these accusations.''

Remberg told the Berlin conference that China is using hacking as one way of trying to quickly acquire technology developed by western countries.

''Across the world the People's Republic of China is intensively gathering political, military, corporate-strategic and scientific information in order to bridge their technological gaps as quickly as possible,'' he said. ''Every one or two days new attacks are detected.''

Yang Yi, director of the Institute of Strategic Studies at the National Defense University in Beijing, told the state-run China Daily last month that allegations that the Chinese government is involved in hacking are unthinkable. ''China is a responsible country and we never do these kind of despicable things,'' he said.

Yang said hackers could infiltrate insecure Chinese computers and networks, hiding their real location, and then launch attacks on Western government targets.