China says it’s not behind Google email hacking

BEIJING (AP) — China says it does not support hacking and is part of global efforts to combat the problem a day after Google disclosed some of its email users suffered hacking attacks that orginated within the country.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters Thursday that China is firmly opposed to activities that sabotage Internet and computer security, including hacking.

Google disclosed Wednesday that personal Gmail accounts of several hundred people, including senior U.S. government officials, military personnel and political activists, had been breached.

Hong said China was working to crack down on the hacking problem, but he didn’t respond when asked whether it would investigate this specific incident.

He said allegations that the Google hack attacks were state-supported were unfounded and made with ulterior motives.