US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Monday expressed concern to Beijing about “malicious cyber activity” by Chinese state-sponsored actors, days after her department reported such a breach.
The incident, which the US Treasury Department revealed last week, occurred in December and resulted in access to some of its workstations and unclassified documents.
In a virtual meeting with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, Yellen “expressed serious concerns about malicious cyber activity by state-sponsored actors in the PRC,” the Treasury said in a statement, referring to the PRC. China.
Yellen also noted the impact of such issues on the relationship between the United States and China, according to the statement.
But Beijing has rejected accusations that a state-sponsored actor was behind the cyberattack, calling the claims “baseless.”
China’s Foreign Ministry previously said that Beijing “has always opposed all forms of hacker attacks, and we further oppose the spread of false information against China for political purposes.”
Yellen’s talks with He come shortly before the United States undergoes a change in leadership, with President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House later this month.
During Trump’s first presidential term, Washington engaged in an escalating tariff war with Beijing, and temperatures could rise again between the world’s two largest economies.
On Monday, Yellen also warned Beijing about “Chinese non-market policies and practices and industrial overcapacity,” which would affect bilateral relations unless addressed, according to the statement.
In addition to discussing macroeconomic developments in both countries, Yellen and He also took stock of the efforts of the economic and financial working groups they jointly established earlier.
“Both sides agreed on the importance of communication and contact,” the Treasury Department said.
