China's state media lashed out at what has been billed as the Pentagon's first formal cyber strategy, saying it would open the door for the United States to use military force against perceived cyberattacks.
The cyber strategy could trigger 'extremely dangerous consequences', Xinhua said.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that the Pentagon had concluded in its first, formal and yet to be published cyber strategy that computer sabotage coming from another country could be considered an act of war, to which the US could respond with traditional military force.
'If you shut down our power grid, maybe we will put a missile down one of your smokestacks,' the newspaper quoted one Pentagon official as saying.
Li Shuisheng, a researcher at the People's Liberation Army's Academy of Military Science, told Xinhua on Wednesday that the new US cyber strategy was an 'excuse to expand traditional military power, strengthen global hegemony' and 'fuel arm races and even wars'.
The US had long alleged that China was a major enemy in cyberspace, disregarding the fact that China had the world's largest number of computers controlled by zombie viruses and was itself vulnerable to cyber attacks, Li said.
Last month, the Ministry of National Defence confirmed for the first time that China has an internet security force, but emphasised that it was being used to improve the PLA's defensive capabilities.