The United States should stop seeing China through a hegemonic lens and viewing its ties with China with an outdated Cold War mentality, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said on Thursday.

Lin made the remarks at a regular news conference, urging the US to stop containing and targeting China under the pretext of "strategic competition", in response to comments by US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

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Reports quoted Hegseth as saying on Fox News on Wednesday that the US is "prepared" for war with China.

Hegseth's rhetoric aims to deliberately incite ideological confrontation and hype up the "China threat", Lin said.

"China's position is clear and consistent. Any war, be it tariff war, trade war, cold war or hot war, must not be fought and cannot be won," Lin said.

Hacking accusation rejected

He also said that the US accusation of 12 Chinese nationals engaging in hacking activities is groundless, and China firmly opposes it.

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The US is the world’s largest "empire of hackers", and its accusation is hypocritical and exhibits double standards, Lin added.

In December last year, China's cyberspace security institutions disclosed two cases of US intelligence institutions launching cyberattacks against Chinese high-tech companies.