China on Thursday blasted reports it ran a network of spies inside the US intelligence establishment in the early nineties, calling the allegations "sheer fabrication."
Foreign ministry spokesman Sun Yuxi accused the Washington Times newspaper of having a hidden agenda to damage China-US ties.
"I think the report carried by the Washington Times is sheer fabrication out of ulterior motives, with which we express our strong dissatisfaction," Sun told a regular news briefing.
Sun accused the newspaper and "some people" in the United States of clinging to a Cold War mentality, saying they had been spreading rumors and baseless allegations against China for years.
"Their attempt is both deplorable and doomed. The improvement and development of China-US relations, which is inevitable, conforms with the fundamental interests of the two countries and the two peoples," he said.
"We demand those who have planted the so-called China spy case see clearly the trend of history and immediately stop their despicable acts of wantonly attacking China," he added.
The Washington Post is serializing a book by one of its senior reporters, Bill Gertz, called the "The China Threat: How The People's Republic Targets America."
The book alleges the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) found five to 10 Chinese spies in the heart of government, including one deep inside the intelligence community.
An excerpt from the book published in the newspaper said the top agent was able to supply Beijing with highly-sensitive defense information – BEIJING (AFP)
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