In an unprecedented move, the U.S. government will charge Chinese officials with cyber espionage for hacking into American businesses, ABC News reported.
Several Chinese government officials allegedly used the Internet to hack into U.S. businesses for economic gain, according to charges to be filed by the Justice Department. Charges include theft of trade secrets and economic espionage.
It is the first time the U.S. has moved to file criminal charges against another country for Internet spying.
The Chinese officials "used military and intelligence facilities to commit cyber espionage against U.S. companies," a U.S. official told NBC News.
The businesses targeted by the alleged hacking are reportedly in the energy and manufacturing industries.
Attorney General Eric holder is expected to announce the specific allegatoins on Monday, along with John Carlin, the head of the Justice Department's National Security Division.
Other accusations include stealing information from a solar panel manufacturing business and information on a nuclear power plant, according to ABC News. Five officials are to be charged. They will become "wanted" men once the charges are announced.
The U.S. has long suspected that the Chinese government was spying on and attempting to obtain secrets from U.S. corporations.
"Chinese actors are the world's most active and persistent perpetrators of economic espionage," the U.S.-based Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive said in a 2011 report according to NBC News.
That includes an incident that occurred last year, when The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and a few other newspapers said Chinese hackers broke into their computers.
China's foreign ministry called those allegations "irresponsible," NBC News reported.
The Monday charges are to be filed in the Western District of Pennsylvania. It is not clear if the five officials charged will be taken into custody, ABC News reported.
