China has sharply denied allegations of a large-scale hacking attack on software company Microsoft.
The allegations by the United States are politically motivated and "fabricated," a State Department spokesman said in Beijing on Tuesday.
Washington had "let its allies line up" to exercise "outrageous criticism of China on the subject of cybersecurity".
Washington's “bogus” allegations were “not covered by anything” and “completely politically motivated,” said spokesman Zhao Lijian.
The Chinese embassy in Wellington, New Zealand had previously spoken of "malicious slander" and "completely unfounded and irresponsible" allegations, while Beijing's representation in Canberra, Australia, described the American government as the "world champion of malicious cyberattacks".
The government in Washington blamed China for the cyber attack on the Microsoft Exchange email server in March.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused the Chinese State Security Ministry of running a network of “criminal hackers”.
An American government representative also emphasized that the USA, the EU, Great Britain, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Japan and NATO stand united against the “immense threat” to their “economic and national security” posed by China's
cyber activities. The EU stated on the allegations that the hacking attack on Microsoft violated "the norms of good government behavior". She called on Beijing to take "all reasonable steps" to crack down on cyber
criminals.
In the past, cyber attacks against American targets were often attributed to Russian actors. There have already been a number of ransomware attacks that have hit hundreds of companies this year. The attacks on a large US pipeline and, most recently, the software company Kaseya were particularly serious. When attacking with ransomware, hackers lock or encrypt the computer systems of their victims in order to extort money from the users for the release of their data.