NYT report on Beijing tapping Trump's phone is fake news, says China

NYT had quoted an intelligence source as saying that they had asked Trump to stop using his personal iPhones as China and Russia repeatedly eavesdropped on his conversations

China on Thursday dismissed as "fake news" a report in the New York Times that said Beijing was tapping into a personal mobile phone of US President Donald Trump.

"It seems certain people in the US are sparing no efforts to win the best screenplay award from the Oscars. I would like to say that this only provides another piece of evidence of the New York Times concocting fake news," said Chinese Foreign Affairs ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying.

On Wednesday, the newspaper had quoted an intelligence source as saying that they had asked Trump to stop using his personal iPhones as China and Russia repeatedly eavesdropped on his conversations.

"I suggest they replace their phones with Huawei (Chinese mobile phone manufacturer) ones," Hua was cited as saying by Efe news.

Senior officials quoted by the Times also said that Beijing intended to use whatever it learned from Trump's personal conversations for its own benefit in the ongoing trade war between the world's two largest economies.

They said that despite repeated warnings of security risks, the US President refused to give up his personal phones.