Beijing, China - Beijing accused the US on Thursday of using spurious spying claims as a pretext to impose a technological "blockade" on China, following claims that Nvidia boss Jensen Huang was the victim of espionage.

"China's technological progress is driven by independent innovation and open cooperation," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a regular press briefing on Thursday.

"The US side should stop fabricating such 'spy' narratives as a pretext for imposing a technological blockade," she said.

Huang, who co-founded Nvidia and turned it into the world's leading supplier of the GPU chips that power AI, has admitted to having an extramarital affair with Alice Huang, a former executive at Singapore-based Megaspeed.

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She is now thought to have worked with Chinese intelligence and used her relationship with Huang to secure Nvidia chips which have since made their way into China.

The US has an effective ban against the sale of such chips into China. Huang has spent years lobbying against such curbs, arguing that the AI revolution can be beneficial to both nations.

President Donald Trump last year cleared Nvidia's H200 chips for export there over objections from hawks in both parties who fear Beijing winning the race to dominate in AI technology.

Beijing has dismissed the claims about spying on Huang as "groundless speculation" and "an attempt to smear China."

The furor comes ahead of a meeting next week between Trump and President Xi Jinping at the APEC gathering in Shenzhen in southern China.