China on Wednesday, Jan. 8, distanced itself from allegations that state-sponsored Chinese hackers penetrated into the Philippine government's executive branch as well as the military and stole their data.
The Chinese Embassy in Manila in a statement reiterated its "consistent and clear" stand about hacking and cyberattacks as it said "it firmly oppose[s] and crack[s] down on hacking and cyberattacks in accordance with law."
Then it also expressed its opposition to the "unjustified labeling, groundless accusations, or smears campaign for geopolitical purposes" against Beijing.
"It is worth noting that the report links the hacking to the South China Sea issue and mentions that the United States and others have provided technical support and technology to the Philippines," the embassy's statement read.
Then it asked: "Who is the mastermind behind this hype farce and who is using cyber issues to stir up the regional situation and seek geopolitical interests?"
"The answer is self-evident," it added.
Bloomberg earlier reported that Chinese-state sponsored hackers penetrated the executive branch of the Philippine government and stole sensitive data.
Bloomberg said it was cybersecurity experts who discovered an infiltration of the executive branch. It said Malacañang asked one of the experts about the details of the hacking incident.
In a press briefing Tuesday, Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Secretary Ivan Uy said the cyberattacks have not compromised sensitive data as the government is proactively repelling such attacks.