MANILA (UPDATE) — China on Wednesday said it does not condone or encourage "all forms of cyberattacks" as it seemingly addressed "false accusations" that it was behind a series of hacking incidents against government websites in the Philippines and United States.

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"China is a major victim of cyberattack. We keep a firm stance against all forms of cyberattacks and resort to lawful methods in tackling them. China does not encourage, support or condone attacks launched by hackers," Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Twitter.

Over the weekend, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) reported that cybersecurity experts prevented the hacking of government websites and email addresses by hackers based in China. 

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DICT’s initial investigation found that hackers were linked to China Unicom, a Chinese state-owned telecommunications company. However, they could not tell if the attack was backed by the Chinese government. 

Meanwhile, the US Department of Justice last week said it disrupted "a botnet of hundreds of US-based small office/home office routers hijacked by People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-sponsored hackers."

But Wang said the "false accusations" only "jeopardize the collective response to the threats our world faces," as he called out the US for being the "very source of risks in the cyberspace."

"The US has proven itself to be the very source of risks and challenges in cyberspace. No country can insulate itself from US cyber attack threat... Cyberspace should not be a battlefield. It is not a grey area for the US to rise above the rules and act wantonly without any consequences," Wang said.
 
CHINA REACHES OUT

On Thursday, the DICT said the Chinese government reached out to the Philippines and expressed intent to cooperate in the ongoing investigation.
 
“They are willing to help, they have mentioned that if we can share with them kung ano iyong nangyari, para mahanap daw nila kung saan at sino iyong gumawa noon," DICT Secretary Ivan John Uy said in a Palace briefing. 

The Chinese Embassy in the Philippines denied that its government was involved in these activities.
 
Uy said the perpetrators were “mercenaries” who might be hiding in other countries and were challenging to find.
 
“Maraming mga ganitong organizations, mga mercenaries, cyber-hackers na nagtatago sa iba’t ibang mga bansa at ginagamit ang kanilang mga talento sa masasamang paraan. So, importante po ang coordination among different countries to work together and go after these groups,” Uy said.
 
DICT, however, is not ruling out that the possibility that these cyber attacks may be connected to the West Philippine Sea dispute between the Manila and Beijing.
 
"In cyber investigations and in analyzing all of this, we never rule out anything,” he said.
 
Some senators have sought an investigation into the alleged cyberattack by China-based hackers.  

—With reports from Joyce Balancio, ABS-CBN News

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