China claims U.S. agencies use “sophisticated weapons” to conduct “cyber attacks and espionage” targeting 45 countries around the world, including China and Russia
China’s Ministry of State Security said today that U.S. forces have been infiltrating the servers of Chinese tech giant Huawei since 2009, in yet another chapter in the deteriorating relations between the two powers in the commercial and technological fields.
In a publication on its official account on the Wechat social network, it claims that the US National Security Agency’s Office of Personalized Access Operations began infiltrating Huawei’s networks in 2009 to carry out “continuous monitoring” of the company.
The ministry, which does not give further details about the alleged espionage of the company, indicated that US agencies use “sophisticated weapons” to carry out “attacks and cyber espionage” aimed at “45 countries in the world, including China and Russia, for more than a decade”.
It also accuses the U.S. of “forcing its companies to cooperate”, for which purpose it “forcibly implanted ‘backdoors’ in the devices, software and applications of technology companies”, he said.
Thus, and through the influence of its technology companies, the United States “achieves global control and data theft,” the agency asserted.
The Chinese ministry also stressed that “cyberspace is increasingly becoming a new battlefield for safeguarding national security”.
It also stressed that, without cybersecurity, “there is no national security, no stable functioning of the economy and society”.
In recent years, Washington and Beijing have had bitter disputes in the technological field over the alleged military ties of the aforementioned Huawei, the international growth of Chinese mobile applications such as TikTok or the access of Chinese companies to U.S. technology.
Recently, China denied having enacted bans on the purchase or use of iPhones by officials and workers of state-owned companies, but indicated that it had “taken note of reports in various media pointing out security problems” in the cell phones of the U.S.-based Apple.