China Says Allegations It Stole U.S. Technology to Build New Attack Helicopter Are 'Fictitious'

China – which has faced numerous allegations that it has stolen U.S. technology – is now denying that it stole American technology to make its first military attack helicopter.

The Associated Press (News - Alert) reported that the allegations were called “severe deviations” from the facts, in an online statement from the Chinese Defense Ministry. In fact, the government is calling it “fictitious”.

"To say that China stole U.S. technology in the process of developing helicopter gunships is seriously out of kilter with the facts," Yang Yujun said in a statement found on an official government website, Reuters (News - Alert) reports. "China's development of helicopter gunships has all along been done upholding the principles of standing on one’s own and independent innovation, relying on our own strength for development and production. … China's helicopter gunships and its engines are all self-developed and produced and we own all the intellectual property rights."

In June, a division of United Technologies Corp. – Pratt & Whitney Canada Corp. – pleaded guilty in Connecticut, to offenses connected to illegal export of software, which was allegedly employed by China to build the attack helicopter, The AP said. The Hamilton Sundstrand Corp, subsidiary and the UTC parent company will pay over $75 million in fines.

China’s new helicopter is called the Z-10.

The case comes in the midst of varied allegations against China over how it has stolen U.S. technology.

For example, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner claimed last year that China is “very, very aggressive” in stealing U.S. technology. U.S. Ambassador to China Gary Locke, also criticized China for trade practices and made U.S. intellectual property a top priority.

Last year, 51 U.S. business groups sent a letter to U.S. Senators to address China's “inadequate protection of intellectual property and restrictions on market access,” according to the Huffington Post (News - Alert).

It was reported in 2011 that piracy, counterfeit U.S. software, and other intellectual property issues in China cost U.S. businesses an estimated $48 billion and 2.1 million jobs in 2009, according to the U.S. International Trade Commission.

More recently, likely Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney claimed that China steals U.S. technology and hacks into U.S. computers, making it an issue in the current U.S. presidential campaign.

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