London: Britain on Tuesday said it had summoned China's top envoy in London to complain about a series of cyber-attacks blamed on Beijing-linked hackers.
The UK, United States and New Zealand on Monday all blamed a series of cyber-security breaches in the last decade on China, which denied the allegations.
The attacks, against lawmakers and democratic institutions, appear to have targeted critics of the Chinese government, the Western powers said.
The Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) in London said it had summoned China's chargé d'affaires of the Chinese Embassy in London.
"The FCDO set out the government's unequivocal condemnation of Chinese state-affiliated organisations and individuals undertaking malicious cyber activity against UK democratic institutions and parliamentarians," a statement read.
"The UK government would not tolerate such threatening activity, and would continue to take strong action with partners across the globe to respond."
The summons to the chargé d'affaires, who acts as ambassador in their absence, came after sanctions were slapped on two individuals and a front company linked to Chinese intelligence over the hacks.
China's foreign ministry has said it "opposes and cracks down on all forms of cyber-attacks" and accused the United States of spreading "false information about threats from Chinese hackers".
"China firmly opposes this, has made strong demarches with the United States and relevant parties," ministry spokesman Lin Jian said.
The US justice department said it had charged seven alleged hackers for their role in what it called a 14-year "prolific global hacking operation".
