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China is not only responsible for various cyberattacks on US military computer systems, but that it continues to launch cyber operations that may threaten the American economy as well, a new Pentagon report has claimed. The new US Department of Defense report warned Beijing 's cyberattacks to harm US economy would make the Chinese 'the world's most active and persistent perpetrators of economic espionage.' According to The Christian Science Monitor, China is particularly interested in how best to defend its own computer networks, but more troubling, is that the country's military is bettering its ability to launch cyberattacks as well. "We note that China's investing in not only capabilities to better defend their networks, but also they're looking at ways to use cyber for offensive operations," the report quoted David Helvey, acting deputy assistant secretary of Defense for Asia security, as saying. Helvey pointed out that China 's People's Liberation Army has set up a dedicated cyberunit to develop cyberwarfare technologies. "There is the potential for these types of operations to be very disruptive. I mean, that's one of the things about military operations in cyberspace - that there can be cascading effects that are hard to predict," he added. According to the paper, one such impact includes cyberespionage on US companies, which US officials estimate has cost America billions of dollars in revenue. A report released last year by the US intelligence agencies called China 's cyberespionage a "persistent threat to US economic security." Meanwhile, Chinese leaders have denied having any role behind cyber attacks on the US . "I can hardly agree with the proposition that the cyberattacks directed to the United States are directly coming from China ," General Liang Guanglie, China 's minister of national defense, has said earlier this month.

China 'world's most active and persistent perpetrators of economic espionage': Pentagon