China rejects cyber-attack claim

BEIJING, April 23 (UPI) -- China faces computer hacking problems of its own and should not be accused of hacking into other countries' computers, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said.

"We have reiterated many times our policies of firmly opposing and severely cracking down on all crimes that damage the Internet, including hacking," Jiang Yu said at a news conference.

Jiang commented in response to questions about U.S. plans for a new military command focused on protecting computer networks from cyber warfare, Xinhua, China's state-run news agency, reported. Some U.S. computer experts have alleged recent attacks on Internet systems may have originated in China.

Jiang said China faces its own problems, with statistics showing eight out of 10 computers in China with Internet access have been attacked by hackers.

China has the largest number of Internet users in the world, Jiang said, adding that nearly 300 million Chinese went online last year.