A Chinese official also defended online censorship of political topics and said the country would not change how it regulates the Internet, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

Google has said it was hit by cyberattacks from China that caused the loss of intellectual property and were also aimed at accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. Google cited the attacks, which , as one reason it plans to stop censoring its Chinese search engine, even if that means closing its China offices.

Google did not blame the Chinese government for the attacks, but U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has called on China to investigate the claims.

"Whether through explicit or implicit means, criticizing 'Chinese government participation in hacking attacks' is totally baseless," China's official Xinhua news agency cited a spokesperson for China's IT ministry as saying. "We resolutely oppose this." The Xinhua article quoting the ministry official was posted on the ministry's Web site.

The official repeated previous government statements that Chinese law forbids hacking attacks and that the country is open to international cooperation to fight cybercrime.