China says US hacks stole trade secrets from tech firms

BEIJING: China’s national internet emergency response centre said on Wednesday it had found and dealt with two incidents of US cyber attacks on Chinese tech firms to “steal trade secrets” since May 2023.

The National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team/Coordination Centre of China (CNCERT/CC) said in a statement published on its website that an advanced materials design and research unit and a large-scale high-tech company focused on intelligent energy and digital information were “suspected of being attacked by a US intelligence agency”, without naming the agency.

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The hacks led to the theft of “a large amount of trade secrets” in both cases, said CNCERT/CC, which says it is a non-governmental technical centre that serves as China’s “national computer emergency response team”, with the aim of preventing and detecting cybersecurity threats to the country.

After years of being accused by Western governments of cyberattacks and industrial espionage, in the past two years several Chinese organisations and government organs have accused the United States and its allies of similar behaviour.

The CNCERT/CC statement echoes accusations from the United States and its allies that China engages in state-led campaigns to steal trade secrets. It also comes at a time when China is dealing with a growing number of US export controls targeting its domestic semiconductor and artificial intelligence industries.

The US Department of State did not immediately respond to a request for comment on CNCERT/CC’s statement.

In March 2022, CNCERT/CC said China had faced a wave of cyberattacks, mostly traced back to the United States but with a few from other countries such as Germany and the Netherlands.

These attacks took control of computers in China and used them to carry out cyberattacks on Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, it said.