China has accused the United States of smearing it after two US security agencies alleged Chinese hackers were attempting to steal research on developing a vaccine against the coronavirus.
"China expresses strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition to such smearing," foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a regular press briefing, stressing Beijing has significant achievements of its own in the fight against the pandemic.
With some countries scrambling after a fresh surge in cases and the global death toll exceeding 294,000, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that the virus "may never go away".
There is no proven therapy for Covid-19. An effective vaccine could allow countries and economies to fully reopen and potentially earn millions of dollars for its creators.
Two US security agencies said hackers linked to Beijing are attempting to steal research and intellectual property related to treatments and vaccines.
"China's efforts to target these sectors pose a significant threat to our nation's response to Covid-19," the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said.
They warned that Chinese government-affiliated groups and others were attempting to obtain "valuable intellectual property and public health data related to vaccines, treatments, and testing".
Neither agency offered evidence or examples to support the allegation.
Washington, which has confirmed almost 1.4 million US cases of the virus and more than 84,000 deaths, has increasingly blamed Beijing for the outbreak that first emerged in China late last year.
China has repeatedly denied the US accusations.
President Donald Trump has accused China of hiding the origins of the virus and not cooperating in efforts to research and fight the disease.
Asked on Monday about reports that the US believed Chinese hackers were targeting US vaccine research, Mr Trump replied: "What else is new with China?... I'm not happy."
Asian Americans are VERY angry at what China has done to our Country, and the World. Chinese Americans are the most angry of all. I don't blame them!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2020
The warning by the security agencies also underscored that Washington believes China has continued broad efforts to obtain US commercial and technology secrets under President Xi Jinping's drive to make his country a technological leader.
In February the US Justice Department indicted four Chinese army personnel suspected of hacking the database of credit rating agency Equifax, giving them the personal data of 145 million Americans.
On Monday the Department of Justice announced the arrest of University of Arkansas engineering professor Simon Saw-Teong Ang for hiding ties to the Chinese government and Chinese universities while he worked on projects funded by NASA.
The indictment said Mr Ang was secretly part of the Xi-backed Thousand Talents programme, which Washington says China uses to collect research from abroad.
Also on Monday Li Xiaojiang, a former professor at Emory University in Atlanta, admitted tax fraud in a case focused on his hidden earnings from China, also as a participant in the Thousand Talents programme.
Government-backed cyber operators in Iran, North Korea, Russia and China have been accused of pumping out false coronavirus news and targeting workers and scientists.
Britain said last week it had detected large-scale "password spraying" tactics - hackers trying to access accounts through commonly used passwords --aimed at healthcare bodies and medical research organisations.
Increasingly US officials are discussing punishing China and seeking compensation for the costs of the pandemic.
In April the US state of Missouri sued China's leadership over what it described as deliberate deception and insufficient action to stop the virus.
On Tuesday Republican senators proposed legislation that would empower Mr Trump to slap sanctions on China if Beijing does not give a "full accounting" for the coronavirus outbreak.
"Their outright deception of the origin and spread of the virus cost the world valuable time and lives as it began to spread," Senator Jim Inhofe said in a statement.
The value of a vaccine was underscored yesterday as Jerome Powell, head of the US Federal Reserve, cautioned yesterday that lingering shutdowns could cause "lasting" economic damage.
His warning burst the balloon on Wall Street, analysts said, with stocks sliding on the comments even as he also said the US economy should rebound "substantially" once the outbreak is reined in.
Mr Trump, trying to jumpstart the world's largest economy as he seeks re-election this year, is pushing past warnings from health officials - particularly top infectious diseases expert Dr Anthony Fauci, who has cautioned that reopening too soon risks triggering an uncontrollable outbreak.
Mr Trump yesterday dismissed Dr Fauci's call for caution as "not acceptable," and in an excerpt of an interview with Fox Business to air in full today, Mr Trump said: "I totally disagree with him on schools."
Fears are growing of a second wave in China, with the northeastern city of Jilin put in partial lockdown and Wuhan, where the virus was first detected last year, planning to test its entire population after clusters of new cases.
