China says cyber space needs rules and co-op

BEIJING -- Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi on Saturday said "cyber space needs rules and cooperation, not war," while citing that China is vulnerable to cyber attacks and suffers such attacks most.

Yang made the remarks at a news conference on the sidelines of the annual session of the National People's Congress, China's top legislature.

"The international community is closely interconnected on the Internet, therefore cyber space needs rules and cooperation, not war," the foreign minister said.

"We oppose to turn cyber space into another battlefield, or capitalize on virtual reality to interfere in other countries' internal affairs," Yang said.

China always advocates a peaceful, secure, open and cooperative cyber space, supports relevant international rules under the framework of the United Nations, and proposes concrete initiatives, Yang said.

"We hope irresponsible rebuke or criticism (against China) would end," he said.

Yang was commenting on western media reports saying that their computer networks were under cyber-attacks originated from China and backed by government or military.

Late last month, US cyber security firm Mandiant released a report which alleged that a secret Chinese military unit in Shanghai was behind years of cyber attacks against US companies.

The report was followed by a wave of Western media criticism of hacking by China.

"Those reports may have caught eyes of many people, but actually they are built on shaky ground," Yang said.

"What is black is black, and what is white stays white. anyone who try to fabricate or piece together a sensational story to serve political motive will not be able to black the name of others or whitewash themselves," he added.

He said Chinese government opposes hacker-attack activities and laws have been promulgated to explicitly prohibit and fight such activities.