China accuses US of cyber breaches

China accused the United States of stealing secrets and infiltrating the country’s national time center, warning that serious breaches could disrupt communications networks, financial systems, power supply and international standard time.

China’s Ministry of State Security said in a statement on its WeChat account on Sunday that the US National Security Agency has been carrying out a cyber attack operation against the National Time Service Center for a long time.

The ministry said it found evidence tracing stolen data and credentials dating back to 2022, which were used to spy on staff mobile devices and network systems at the centre.

The U.S. intelligence agency “exploited a vulnerability” in a foreign smartphone brand’s messaging service to access personnel’s devices in 2022, the department said, without naming the brand.

The national time center is a research institute affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences that produces, maintains and publishes China’s standard time.

The department’s investigation also revealed that the United States launched attacks on the center’s internal network systems and attempted to attack its high-precision ground-based timing system in 2023 and 2024.

The U.S. embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

China and the United States have increasingly accused cyberattacks over the past few years, each citing the other as the primary cyber threat.

The latest accusations come amid renewed trade tensions over China’s expanded rare earth export controls and the United States threatening to further increase tariffs on Chinese goods.