State not involved in Google hacking: China

Debunking involvement of the state in cyber attacks on Google, China on Monday offered to enhance cooperation with the international community to fight against internet crime.

At the same time Beijing accused US of "double standards" as a row with Washington over internet freedom intensified, China said that hacking charges levelled against the state were without foundation.

"Accusation that the Chinese Government participated in cyber attack, either in an explicit or inexplicit way, is groundless and aims to denigrate China. We are firmly opposed to that", Xinhua quoted a spokesman of the ministry of Information and Technology.

"China's policy on internet safety is transparent", he said. The Chinese response came after the White House said that President Barack Obama was "troubled" by Google statement that China based hackers had attacked its system and demanded official answers.

The International search engine giant has threatened that it would quit China over the cybernetics and has made it clear that it is not willing to bow to Chinese censors. Besides US, India has also accused China of planned hacking into its sensitive official websites.

Labelling internet security as a global concern, the Chinese spokesman said this would require coordinated international effort and China was willing to deepen cooperation with other nations on this.

The spokesman claimed that China itself was the victim of internet hacking. "Official data shows more than one million IP addresses were under control by overseas sources". He said more than 42,000 Chinese websites had been hacked last year alone.

"China's regulation on the internet industry is in line with the loss", the spokesman said. Meanwhile, Global Times, an English paper run by the Communist Party charged that US itself was a major source of cyber attacks. "The US is the first country to launch cyber warfare", the paper said in an editorial.