Chinese President Xi calls for boosting “disruptive innovation” amid increasing US curbs

China on Thursday slammed as "baseless allegations" Washington's claim of dismantling a Chinese network of hackers, a day after President Xi Jinping called for stepped-up efforts to boost "disruptive innovation" amid increasing technology curbs from the US and the EU.

China must strengthen scientific and technological innovation – especially "original and disruptive" innovations – as well as achieve scientific and tech self-reliance and "fight the battle in core technologies," Xi told the 24-member Politburo meeting of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) on Wednesday.

He also stressed the importance of improving the "resilience and security" of supply chains and ensuring that the industrial system is "autonomous and controllable, safe and reliable," the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported.

"Developing new productive forces is the intrinsic requirement and an important focus of promoting high-quality development, and it's necessary to continue to well leverage innovation to speed up the development of new productive forces," state-run Xinhua news agency quoted Xi as saying.

His comments came as the Chinese economy struggled to shake off the slowdown mode leading to increasing pressure on the job market accentuated by increasing technology curbs from the US.

On Thursday, China slammed FBI Director Christopher Wray's claim that the American officials have dismantled a Chinese network of hackers that targets US public infrastructure saying Washington is resorting to baseless allegations.

"Just this morning, we announced an operation where we and our partners identified hundreds of routers that had been taken over by the PRC state-sponsored hacking group known as Volt Typhoon," Wray told lawmakers, according to reports from Washington.

Hours later, reacting sharply to Wray's allegation, Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a media briefing here that China firmly opposes and cracks down on all forms of cyber attacks under law.

"Without valid evidence, the US jumped to an unwarranted conclusion and made groundless accusations against China. It is extremely irresponsible and is a complete distortion of facts. China firmly opposes this," he said.

The US itself is the origin of and the biggest perpetrator of cyber attacks, he said, adding, the US Cyber Force Command has openly declared that the critical infrastructure of other countries is a legitimate target for US cyber-attacks.

About the US allegations that China's leading memory chip maker, as well as AI company, were associated with the Chinese military, Wang said Beijing firmly opposes the US overstretching the concept of national security, setting up all kinds of discriminatory lists, going after Chinese companies and disrupting normal economic and trade cooperation between China and the US.

"This is a complete departure from the principles of market competition and international trade rules that the US has long claimed to champion. Such moves erode the confidence of foreign companies to invest and operate in the US and undermine the interests of US companies and investors. It is bound to backfire," he said.