Beijing on Monday accused the United States of launching “tens of thousands” of cyberattacks on China and stealing treasure troves of sensitive data, including from a public research university.

Washington has accused Beijing of cyberattacks on US companies and government agencies, one of the issues where relations between the two powers have soured in recent years.

China has consistently denied the claims and has taken action against alleged US cyberespionage, but has rarely made specific attacks public.

A report released Monday by the National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center (CVERC) accused the US National Security Agency (NSA) of “carrying out tens of thousands of malicious attacks against network targets in China in recent years.”

It specifically accused the NSA’s Tailored Access Operations (TAO) Office of infiltrating Northwestern Polytechnical University in the city of Xi’an.

Funded by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the university specializes in aerospace research.

CVERC claimed TAO infiltrated the university’s networks and “took control of tens of thousands of network devices,” including servers, routers, and network switches.

By using dozens of cyber weapons and exploiting previously unknown vulnerabilities in the SunOS operating system, the entity gained access to “core technical data,” including passwords and the operation of critical network devices, the report said.

TAO has “stolen over 140 gigabytes of high-value data” in recent years and has garnered support from groups in Europe and South Asia, CVERC said in the report, co-authored by private Chinese cybersecurity firm Qihoo 360.

The NSA did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment.

In June, Xi’an authorities said they had launched an investigation into a reported cyberattack on the university that bore the hallmarks of “overseas hacking groups and unlawful elements.”

The attacks “created significant risks and hidden dangers to the normal work and life of our school,” a university cybersecurity official told state broadcaster CCTV in an op-ed published Monday.

Last year, Washington accused Beijing of staging a massive attack on Microsoft email software, affecting at least 30,000 US organizations – including local governments – as well as customers in other countries.

China denied the allegations and countered that Washington was the “world champion” of cyber espionage.