USA: After President Joe Biden issued a new executive order purportedly limiting the use of spyware by the government, China responded by accusing the United States of attempting to maintain "hegemony in cyberspace" under the guise of "national security."

Speaking on behalf of the Foreign Ministry, Mao Ning said that despite the recent White House directive to restrict the use of certain surveillance technology,

Washington still poses the "biggest threat to global cybersecurity," adding that US agencies have targeted foreign governments and businesses "under the guise of national security and human rights without any supporting documentation."

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She urged the US to "stop its global hacking operations" and said that the US government "knowingly abuses technology for cyber surveillance and theft of secrets" in an effort to maintain its hegemony in cyberspace.

While a reporter at Friday's press briefing noted the move was starkly at odds with the administration's prior work with the Israeli cyber surveillance firm NSO Group, Biden's new executive order called for the banning of "commercial spyware that poses risks to national security or has been misused by foreign actors."

The US government allegedly entered into a "secret contract" through a front company with the company in 2021 that permitted officials to covertly track "thousands" of phone users in Mexico using NSO Group's "Landmark" geolocation tool.

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This information was reported in the New York Times earlier this week. Additionally, the agreement "allows for Landmark to be used against mobile numbers in the United States," though the outlet claimed it had no proof of this as of yet.

The agreement with NSO Group "still appears to be active," according to the NYT, despite language in the executive order directing federal agencies to stop using tools that have been "misused" by governments abroad.

The Israeli company has previously come under fire for allegedly working with more than a dozen foreign governments to use its potent "Pegasus" spyware programme to target lawyers, journalists, and human rights activists, including in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Mexico.

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Although it's unclear to what extent the programme was used against US citizens, other media reports claim the FBI purchased the technology under a covert agreement and tested ways to hack into American cell phones.