China accuses US of using cyberwarfare

China raised the ante in an escalating war of words with the US as the ruling Communist party's mouthpiece accused Washington of employing cyberwarfare.

"The US was the first country in the world to introduce the concept of cyberwar; it has introduced and developed a new kind of army, a cyberarmy, and even set up a hacker brigade," People's Daily said in a vitriolic editorial. "US intelligence agencies can, through technical means, fully monitor, follow and erase online information harmful to the US' national interest. It is really ridiculous that under such circumstances, it demands other countries to allow the free flow of information on the net."

The editorial, published on People's Daily's website under the name Wang Xiaoyang, is the latest shot in an exchange of remarks that were triggered by Google's threat to pull out of China but are escalating into a full-scale dispute over the diverging values of China and the west. It is also a rare example of Beijing handing back the accusation of cyberwarfare to Washington, which regularly lists cyberwarfare from China as one of the main security risks on the rise.