China avoids questions about Apple, Amazon chip hack report

A Chinese government spokesman has sidestepped questions about a report that its spies inserted chips into computer equipment that might allow them to hack into U.S. companies and government agencies.

Do you feel that you still need China to respond to these statements?- Lu Kang, Chinese government spokesman

The spokesman, Lu Kang, responded to questions Monday from reporters by directing them to statements by the equipment supplier and customers including Apple and Amazon. Those companies denied any knowledge the equipment had been altered.

Lu said, "Do you feel that you still need China to respond to these statements?"

Bloomberg News cited unidentified U.S. officials as saying malicious chips were inserted into equipment supplied by Super Micro Computer Inc. to American companies and government agencies.

Bloomberg said the components included code that caused the products to accept changes to their software and to connect to outside computers.

On Sunday, Apple Inc's topsecurity officer told Congress on Sunday that it had found nosign of suspicious transmissions or other evidence that it hadbeen penetrated in a sophisticated attack on its supply chain.

Apple Vice President for Information Security GeorgeStathakopoulos wrote in a letter to the Senate and Housecommerce committees that the company had repeatedly investigatedand found no evidence for the main points in a BloombergBusinessweek article published on Thursday, including that chipsinside servers sold to Apple by Super Micro Computer Incallowed for backdoor transmissions to China.

Bloomberg said on Friday it stood by its story, which wasbased on 17 anonymous sources.