The European Union says it stands in solidarity with the Czech Republic, after China was identified as being responsible for a "malicious cybercampaign" at the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
"The European Union and its Member States, together with international partners, stand in solidarity with Czechia regarding the malicious cyber campaign that targeted its Ministry of Foreign Affairs," said EU foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas in a statement.
EU member states have increasingly been the target of cyberattacks from China in recent years and China should do more to prevent them, the European Union added.
Ms Kallas said the EU condemned these attacks, which she said were contrary to internationally agreed norms on how states should behave in cyberspace.
"We call upon all states, including China, to refrain from such behaviour," she said.
"States should not allow their territory to be used for malicious cyber activities."
Ms Kallas said the EU was ready to take further action if needed to prevent, deter or respond to malicious behaviour in cyberspace.
Chinese ambassador summoned to Czech Republic
China's ambassador to the Czech Republic has been summoned following the cyberattack that targeted Prague's foreign ministry, Czech officials have said.
The Czech foreign ministry said an extensive investigation of the attack "led to a high degree of certainty about the responsible actor", naming it as China-linked group APT31.
"I summoned the Chinese ambassador to make clear that such hostile actions have serious consequences for our bilateral relations," Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky said on social media platform X.
The foreign ministry said in a statement the attack started in 2022 and targeted "one of the unclassified networks" of the ministry.
"The malicious activity... was perpetrated by the cyberespionage actor APT31 that is publicly associated with the (Chinese) Ministry of State Security," the ministry added, citing its investigation.
"We call on the People's Republic of China to ... refrain from such attacks and to take all appropriate measures to address this situation," said the ministry.
Mr Lipavsky said that "we detected the attackers during the intrusion".
The Czech Security Information Office (BIS) singled out China as a threat to security in its 2024 annual report.
"The Chinese embassy logically focuses on gaining information about the Czech political scene," the BIS said.
