The Chinese Embassy in the United Kingdom condemned the “cyberattack allegations” made by the British government, describing them as "baseless" and "malicious slander," according to CNN.

This comes after the UK’s security services confirmed that hackers supported by the Chinese government were responsible for a cyber-attack targeting the UK elections watchdog and carrying out a surveillance operation on British politicians.

The Chinese ambassador in the UK will be summoned to explain the incident, which resulted in China allegedly accessing the personal details of about 40 million British voters, stored in the Electoral Commission.

A statement from the Chinese Embassy said today in response, "The United Kingdom's claim that China was responsible for malicious cyber campaigns targeting the United Kingdom is entirely groundless and constitutes malicious slander. The British promotion of so-called 'Chinese cyber attacks' is baseless, and the announcement of sanctions is explicit political manipulation."

The UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office accused Chinese state-linked groups of conducting cyber attack campaigns against the British Electoral Commission in 2021 and 2022, as well as British parliamentarians. It stated that sanctions were imposed on a company and individuals involved in the group known as Advanced Persistent Threat 31 (APT 31) - a group of hackers involved in a series of high-profile attacks and are run by China’s Ministry of State according to the US State Department.

"The United Kingdom falsely accused China of attempting to interfere in British democracy. This is nothing more than a propaganda trick, and an example of a thief crying ‘stop thief!’ - the statement said.

It continued, saying it has taken steps towards the United Kingdom and will respond with a "justified and necessary" reaction to the sanctions imposed by London.

China added in its statement, "We strongly urge the United Kingdom to immediately stop spreading false information about China, cease such self-imposed farce of countering China, and refrain from proceeding down the wrong path that only leads to failure," according to its statement.

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