China blasts report of spying on the fed as ‘political lie’

27 July 2022 - 12:22 By Bloomberg News
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China lashed out at a Republican lawmaker who accused it of trying to get secret information from the Federal Reserve.
China lashed out at a Republican lawmaker who accused it of trying to get secret information from the Federal Reserve.
Image: Bloomberg

China lashed out at a Republican lawmaker who accused it of trying to get secret information from the Federal Reserve, saying the claim was a “political lie,” and some politicians in the US have “persecution mania.”

“The report you mentioned is a political lie fabricated by a few Republican lawmakers who harbor ill intentions,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said Wednesday at a regular news briefing in Beijing.

Zhao was responding to a question about Ohio Senator Rob Portman’s charge that the Fed’s own investigations identified several employees with connections to Chinese talent recruiters, and efforts to gain insight into monetary policy as well as access to internal data.

Portman’s accusation “lacks basis in facts,” Zhao added. “It seems that some US politicians have China phobia and persecution mania.”

Portman, the ranking member on the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, said in a statement that the Fed needed to do more “to counter this threat from one of our foremost foreign adversaries.”

Fed Chair Jerome Powell, in a letter to Portman, registered “strong concerns about assertions and implications” in the report, while assuring him that Fed staff with access to sensitive information undergo “comprehensive” background checks.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com

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