Chinese police in the northeastern city of Harbin have accused the United States National Security Agency (NSA) of launching “advanced” cyberattacks during the Asian Winter Games in February, targeting essential industries.
Police added three alleged NSA agents to a wanted list and also accused the University of California and Virginia Tech of being involved in the attacks after carrying out investigations, according to a report by state news agency Xinhua.
It did not specify how the two American universities were involved.
However, the report contained a considerable amount of detail on the cyberattacks and the alleged individuals involved, and comes as the world’s two largest economies spiral deeper into a trade war that has already spurred travel warnings for Chinese tourists going to the US and halted imports of US films into China.
“The US National Security Agency (NSA) launched cyberattacks against important industries such as energy, transportation, water conservancy, communications, and national defence research institutions in Heilongjiang province,” the report said, citing the Harbin city public security bureau.
The US Embassy in China did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
The attacks had “the intention of sabotaging China’s critical information infrastructure, causing social disorder, and stealing important confidential information,” it added.
Xinhua said the NSA operations took place during the Winter Games and were “suspected of activating specific pre-installed backdoors” in Microsoft Windows operating systems on specific devices in Heilongjiang.
Three named individuals “repeatedly carried out cyber attacks on China’s critical information infrastructure and participated in cyber attacks on Huawei and other enterprises”, it added.
The US routinely accuses Chinese state-backed hackers of launching attacks against its critical infrastructure and government bodies.
Last month, Washington announced indictments against a slew of alleged Chinese hackers who targeted the US Defense Intelligence Agency, the US Department of Commerce, and the foreign ministries of Taiwan, South Korea, India, and Indonesia.
Beijing denies all involvement in overseas cyber espionage.
After years of being accused by Western governments of cyberattacks and industrial espionage, in the past two years several Chinese organisations and government organs have accused the United States and its allies of similar behaviour.
In December, China said it found and dealt with two US cyber attacks on Chinese tech firms to “steal trade secrets” since May 2023, but did not name the agency involved.