CRANBERRY TWP — The federal government charged Chinese military officials Monday with hacking into private U.S. enterprises, including Westinghouse Electric with its headquarters in the township.

The 56-page indictment released Monday morning by the U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh detailed the alleged security breaches and theft of intellectual property. The case represents the first time the United States has brought charges against another country for cyber hacking and espionage charges.

The indictment detailed how Chinese hackers “repeatedly targeted” high-level officials at the company, including its chief executive officer.

Sheila Holt, spokesman for Westinghouse, said Monday she couldn’t comment extensively on the indictment.

“Westinghouse just learned of the indictment today and has not had the opportunity to review it,” she said. “Therefore we cannot comment.”

Westinghouse in 2007 signed a contract with the Chinese government to build four nuclear power plants, and most of the data allegedly stolen by the Chinese detailed the construction and design plans for those power plants.

Those designs are the basis for almost half of the world’s operating nuclear power plants, the indictment said.

The hackers also allegedly stole more than 700,000 pages of e-mails from “senior decision-makers” at the company to gain insider knowledge on the goings-on of the company.

Alcoa, another international company with a subsidiary office in Cranberry, also is listed in the indictment released by federal attorneys.

In that case, hackers stole nearly 3,000 e-mails from company employees, while Chinese operatives also impersonated a member of the company’s board of directors in e-mails sent to other high-level officials.

At least 19 Alcoa employees were targeted in the e-mail “spearphishing” campaign, officials said.

“To our knowledge, no material information was compromised during this incident which occurred several years ago,” said Alcoa spokesman Monica Orbe. “Safeguarding our data is a top priority for Alcoa, and we continue to invest resources to protect our systems.

Federal officials said in the indictment that the Chinese officials deliberately targeted the affected companies, most of which were in direct negotiations and business relations with the Chinese.

“In some cases, the conspirators stole trade secrets that would have been particularly beneficial to Chinese companies at the time they were stolen,” the indictment said.

The other affected companies are U.S. Steel, Allegheny Technologies and SolarWorld, along with the United Steel Workers Union.

China denied it all. In a statement, the Foreign Ministry said the charges were based on “fabricated facts” and would jeopardize China-U.S. “cooperation and mutual trust.”

The statement said, “The Chinese government, the Chinese military and their relevant personnel have never engaged or participated in cybertheft of trade secrets.”

In a further move late Monday, China announced it was suspending cooperation with the U.S. in a joint cybersecurity working group and warned of further retaliation “as the situation evolves.”

The working group was established in April 2013 following the publication of allegations of spying by the Chinese military and first met last July.

Monday’s prosecution was announced on the heels of a separate worldwide operation over the weekend that resulted in the arrests of 97 people in 16 countries who are suspected of developing, distributing or using malicious software called BlackShades.

The criminal charges underscore a longtime Obama administration goal to prosecute state-sponsored cyberthreats, which U.S. officials say they have grappled with for years. One government report said more than 40 Pentagon weapons programs and nearly 30 other defense technologies have been compromised by cyber intrusions from China.

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