China has been the target of a big increase in cyber-attacks in recent years and faces more of a threat from hackers than any country in the West, a military researcher said on Saturday.

Beijing has hotly denied recent reports in Western media that Chinese hackers penetrated systems in the Pentagon and in the chancellery and key ministries of German leader Angela Merkel.

Computers in Britain’s Foreign Office have also been hit, according to the Guardian newspaper.

Countries that are victims of computer hackers should work together instead of arbitrarily blaming China, Wang Xinjun, a researcher at the People’s Liberation Army’s Academy of Military Sciences, told the official Xinhua news agency.