US and UK accuse China-backed hackers of ‘widespread intrusions’ America, Britain and allies in co-ordinated push against Beijing sponsored espionage

The US justice department on Thursday charged two Chinese nationals with conducting a global hacking campaign, in a co- ordinated move with US allies designed to send a stark warning to China to stop stealing technology around the world.

Rod Rosenstein, deputy attorney-general, and Christopher Wray, the FBI director who earlier this year warned Congress about the growing threat from Chinese espionage, unveiled the action which is part of a new justice department “China initiative” aimed at tackling rising Chinese cyber espionage. The threat is increasingly raising alarm bells from the US, UK and Canada to Japan, New Zealand and Australia.

In the UK, the British government said Chinese state sponsored hackers had been running one of the most “significant and widespread cyber intrusions” against the UK and its allies, targeting trade secrets and economies around the world.

The move to publicly attribute the two year campaign to a hacking group known as APT10 is part of a co-ordinated push back by the US and western allies against Beijing backed espionage and intellectual property theft.

UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said: “These activities must stop. Our message to governments prepared to enable these activities is clear: together with our allies, we will expose your actions.”

Mr Rosenstein said the Chinese nationals were charged with conspiracy to commit “computer intrusion” against dozens of companies in the US and around the world. He said they helped the Chinese government target and penetrate managed service providers that store data on servers around the world.

“It is unacceptable that we continue to uncover cyber crimes by China,” said Mr Rosenstein. “We want China to cease its illegal cyber activities.”

One official familiar with the move told the Financial Times that it would “further demonstrate the depths that China has gone to in their quest to cheat their way up the global economic ladder”.

The action comes as the Trump administration steps up pressure on China across the board. In addition to attempts to reduce its trade deficit with China, the administration is increasing efforts to tackle everything from the theft of intellectual property to Chinese spying and “influence operations” in the US. In a speech in October, US vice-president Mike Pence put China on notice that the Trump administration believed that previous administrations had been too soft.