Pierre Bayle, head of Corporate Communications for EADS, said Thursday that "We strongly deny the Financial Times' allegation that EADS CEO Louis Gallois declared spying to be a 'reality in China' - this is complete nonsense as he never said that."

"Mr. Gallois only pointed to the fact that industrial espionage generally is a matter of concern. He did not single out any specific countries, so, to suggest otherwise is totally wrong," Bayle told Xinhua.