Chinese FM responds: Against any cyber attack

China is against cyber attacks in any form, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Tuesday.

About concerns that recent cyber conflict between the US and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea might escalate into a cyber war or increase tension in the region, Wang said: "China is against cyber attacks in any form. Any conclusion should be based on evidence."

Wang made the remarks in an interview with Phoenix TV. It's the first time that Wang commented on the US-DPRK cyber conflict.

The US State Department on Monday basically rejected a US senator's claim that China knew about or was involved in the cyberattack against Sony Pictures.

US State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke said in a daily press briefing that the US government stands behind an FBI report which held the DPRK solely responsible for the hacking of Sony Pictures.

"I can't imagine anything this massive happening in North Korea without China being involved or at least knowing about it," Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, told CNN's Dana Bash on "State of the Union" on Sunday. Graham called for additional US action against the DPRK to make it "feel the pain that is due".

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying on Monday said that China prohibits the act of launching cyber-attacks inside China or using facilities in China by any foreign country.

"Such act, if discovered, will be dealt with in accordance with law and in a serious manner. The remarks of relevant people will in no way help resolve the problem, and are not conducive to building mutual trust and cooperation on cyber security issues," Hua said.

Jonathan Pollack, senior fellow at the John L. Thornton China Center of the Brookings Institution, said Graham was making a serious charge without any evidence.

"I have no idea why Senator (Lindsay) Graham would suggest that China was somehow involved in the cyberattack on Sony Pictures," Pollack told China Daily. "He is making a serious charge without offering any evidence at all to substantiate his claim. It's more what he believes rather than what he knows. His remarks are decidedly unhelpful in addressing the cyber threat increasingly prevalent in the corporate world."

Graham said President Obama should put the DPRK back on the list of state sponsors of terrorism.

"What's happened here it shows how exposed we are in America to cyberattack," Graham said. "If North Korea can do this to a major corporation in America, what can other people do to our country."

In November, hackers accessed the Sony computer system and released some of the stolen data.

The FBI report determined that the DPRK was behind the attack on Sony Pictures amid plans to release The Interview, a fictional movie about an assassination plot against DPRK leader Kim Jong-un. The FBI did not suspect any other country was involved in the attack.

Contact the writer at aiheping@chinadailyusa.com and chenweihua@chinadailyusa.com