Chinese media has lambasted Google Inc, Apple Inc, and other American tech firms on Wednesday for helping the US government spy on China and called for Beijing to inflict "severe punishment" on them.

Yahoo Inc, Cisco Systems Inc, Facebook Inc, and Microsoft Corp were also among the US companies that People's Daily had labeled as threats to China's cyber-security. China Daily had also expressed similar sentiments on its front page, Reuters relayed.

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It is not yet known what triggered this recent lashing out and the information that the American companies have allegedly stolen are also yet to be confirmed. Chinese media have been attacking US tech firms for assisting the US government in its cyber espionage efforts.

About a year ago, US National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden uncovered widespread espionage programs, one of which is PRISM. Under this program, the NSA was able to nab data from Google, Apple, and other tech companies.

Since Snowden's revelation, Chinese state-run companies have begun cutting their ties with American firms such as IBM Corp, Cisco, and Oracle Corp and have replaced them with local partners. According to analysts, US companies could lose billions of dollars because of Snowden's report.

In a microblog, the People's Daily said US tech companies are all cooperating with the PRISM program to spy on China. The report also said they will tighten their international regulations and inflict severe punishment on the "pawns of the villain" or on anyone who steals information from China.

This week, Google has already encountered problems in China when its services were blocked ahead of the 25^th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square demonstrations. Google Chief Legal Officer David Drummond said the US government is unable to access their servers and that the firm provides user data only according to the law.

As of now, Facebook is blocked in China. However, the social media firm announced last month that it may launch a sales office there to provide additional support to domestic advertisers using the networking site to reach international customers.

Last month, China had banned central government offices from using Microsoft's most recent operating system Windows 8 on new computer units. The US responded to this by charging five Chinese army officials with hacking into US firms and stealing trade secrets.

The indictment of the five officers ignited the anger of China. Beijing is now working to boost the development of its local information technology (IT) firms.