China raised the ante at the weekend in an escalating war of words with the US as the ruling Communist party’s mouthpiece accused Washington of employing cyberwarfare.

“The US was the first country in the world to introduce the concept of cyberwar; it has introduced and developed a new kind of army, a cyberarmy, and even set up a hacker brigade,” People’s Daily said in a vitriolic editorial. “US intelligence agencies can, through technical means, fully monitor, follow and erase online information harmful to the US’ national interest. It is really ridiculous that under such circumstances, it demands other countries to allow the free flow of information on the net.”

The editorial, published on People’s Daily’s website under the name Wang Xiaoyang, is the latest shot in an exchange of remarks that were triggered by Google’s threat to pull out of China but are escalating into a full-scale dispute over the diverging values of China and the west.

It is also a rare example of Beijing handing back the accusation of cyberwarfare to Washington, which regularly lists cyberwarfare from China as one of the main security risks on the rise.

People’s Daily also accused Washington of stoking unrest in Iran. “Behind America’s so-called internet freedom is naked political scheming,” it said. “How did the constant chaos after the election in Iran come about? That was a cyberwar initiated by the US, where on Youtube and Twitter, it spread rumours, created splits, provoked and sowed discord between the supporters of the conservative and the reformist factions, engaged in veiled infiltration and instigation which led to large-scale bloody conflict in Iran.”

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