China says suffers "massive" Internet spy damage

China has suffered "massive" losses of state secrets through the Internet, a senior official said, as China faces reports that it has raided the computer networks of Western powers.

Vice Minister of Information Industry Lou Qinjian said his country was the target of a campaign of computer infiltration and subversion and proposed a raft of counter-measures including toughened censorship, new security bodies and commercial controls.

He did not address recent Western allegations of cyber-spying against China.

"The Internet has become the main technological channel for external espionage activities against our core, vital departments," he wrote in Chinese Cadres Tribune, a magazine.