China denies claims it stole US fighter plane plans

China dismissed accusations it stole F-35 stealth fighter plans as groundless, after documents leaked by former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden on a cyber attack were published by a German magazine.

The Pentagon has previously acknowledged that hackers had targeted sensitive data for defence programmes such as the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, but stopped short of publicly blaming China for the F-35 breach.

Defence experts say that China’s home-grown stealth jets had design elements resembling the F-35.