ANKARA 

Amid reports of Washington spying on its European allies, China on Thursday called the US the “world’s number one eavesdropping power.”

“It is unacceptable for the United States to spy on its allies and even more intolerable to spy on the world,” Wang Wenbin, spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry, said at a news conference in Beijing.

He said the US has been “recognized as the world's number one eavesdropping power and uses varied methods for the purpose,” China’s public broadcaster CGTN reported.

“The US had set up monitoring devices in nearly 100 US embassies and consulates abroad to steal secrets from those countries,” Wang alleged.

German media reported earlier this week that Denmark's intelligence agency helped the US National Security Agency (NSA) spy on top European leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

The revelations that Washington eavesdropped on its European allies first emerged in 2013, but German journalists have now gained access to internal reports about how the Danish Defense Intelligence Service (FE) provided support to the NSA.

The report indicated that Germany's northern neighbor and EU partner cooperated actively with the US in spying on German leaders.

“The US wiretapping its European allies, as disclosed by the media a few days ago, is just the tip of the iceberg of the huge global network of secrets theft, and the US owes the international community an explanation,” the Chinese official said.

Beijing also urged Washington to “immediately halt large-scale wiretapping and stealing of secrets and stop suppressing enterprises of other countries under the guise of national security.”