China says its cybersecurity under threat

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BEIJING, March 19 (UPI) -- A Chinese national computer monitoring center says the country's cybersecurity has come under increasingly severe threats amid a variety of safety risks.

The National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team Coordination Center in Beijing reported hackers hit 16,388 web pages in China -- including 1,802 government websites -- in the past year, an increase of 6.1 percent from 2012 and 21.4 percent from 2011.

CNCERT said it identified 22,308 phishing websites last year targeting the country's growing online population, which has grown to 564 million, China's state-run Xinhua News Agency reported Tuesday.

Most of the phishing websites are running on foreign severs, with the majority of them based in the United States, the report said.

China, for its part, has come under criticisms from the United States, which has alleged the Chinese government was behind hacking activities targeting U.S. sites.

China's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said last week the country hopes to discuss the issue with the Unites States.

"China resolutely opposes hacking of any form and would like to communicate with the United States on cyberspace security in a constructive way," she said.