China says US is 'quite arrogant and selfish' for indicting alleged hackers, claims charges are fabricated

China criticized the United States after the Department of Justice indicted two Chinese nationals and accused them of cyber crime. A spokeswoman for the Chinese government called the move "quite arrogant and selfish" and accused the U.S. of "fabricating facts."

What indictment?

On Thursday, the Department of Justice unsealed an indictment against Chinese nationals Zhu Hua and Zhang Shilong. The two men were charged with "conspiracy to commit computer intrusions, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft."

In addition to stealing intellectual property from American companies, Zhu and Zhang, as well as the APT10 hacking group they were a part of, stand accused of accessing the personal information of more than 100,000 Navy personnel. The DOJ said that Zhu and Zhang "acted in association with the Chinese Ministry of State Security's Tianjin State Security Bureau."

"China will find it difficult to pretend that it is not responsible for this action," Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said during a news conference announcing the indictments. Rosenstein said that Zhu and Zhang "were part of a group that hacked computers in at least a dozen countries and gave China's intelligence service access to sensitive business information."

Neither man has been arrested, and the DOJ noted that they were innocent until proven guilty.

What did the Chinese government say now?

"The U.S. is a world superpower, and it's quite arrogant and selfish," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said during a press briefing Friday. She also insisted that "the Chinese government has never participated in or supported anyone in stealing trade secrets in any way."

Hua accused the United States of "fabricating facts," saying "they believe that a lie repeated a thousand times will become the truth, but I want to tell them that a lie is still a lie even after it has been repeated ten thousand times."