Accusing the American media of hyping the cyber hacking issue amid high-level talks between Washington and Beijing, the Chinese State mouth piece Xinhua Tuesday warned that any disproportional focus on a single matter could distort the big picture.
"While we can't deny that cyber security has emerged as a growing source of contention between the two countries, the problem was largely a product of Washington's dubious 'cyber espionage' claims against China, and the issue shouldn't be hyped into something that would overshadow and obstruct talks on much more important issues between the two nations," said the Chinese state mouthpiece.
Dozens of senior officials from China and the United States gathered in Washington for an annual high-level forum between the two countries.
As a prelude to the annual high-level forum, the two sides Monday discussed about the cyber security issues, according to the BBC News.
Since last year, war over cyber security between Beijing and Washington has escalated following reports of Chinese hackers stealing secret information from the American government and business firms in the country.
At several meetings, the Obama administration has pointed accusing finger at its Chinese counterparts for cyber attacks. But the sudden leak of the U.S. National Security Agency's surveillance programs comes as a hard-blow to the Americans and it is believed that the leaks will hamper Washington's efforts in pressing Beijing to end its "cyber attack activities."
Former CIA analyst Edward Snowden, who leaked U.S. secret intelligence secrets last month, told a Hong Kong newspaper that many of the agency's targets were in Hong Kong and mainland China.
