U.S. says Chinese hackers stole trade secrets

The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Friday disputed U.S. cyberespionage charges against two of its citizens. U.S. officials on Thursday accused Zhu Hua and Zhang Shilong of breaching computer networks as far back as 2006 and stealing trade secrets across multiple sectors, including finance, aviation, and space. The indictment said the two men worked for the Huaying Haitai Science and Technology Development Company in Tianjin and acted in connection with the Chinese Ministry of State Security bureau in the city. Prosecutors said the suspects obtained the names, Social Security details, and other personal information of more than 100,000 U.S. Navy employees. The whereabouts of Zhu and Zhang are unclear, and China does not have an extradition treaty with the United States.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying denied the country’s government ever participated in theft of trade secrets and accused the United States of undermining the development of other countries. “The U.S. is a world superpower, and it’s quite arrogant and selfish,” Hua said.

Zhu and Zhang also face allegations of breaching computer networks of companies in at least 11 other countries, including the United Kingdom and Japan. U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said more than 90 percent of the economic espionage cases handled by the Justice Department over the past seven years involved China.