German Chancellor Angela Merkel has spoken to an audience in China and said the double agent spying allegations against the US were serious.

On Monday, Merkel spoke at a news conference in Beijing and said that if the German man did indeed work as a double agent for the US, it would be a clear opposite of how partner countries are supposed to treat each other, Reuters reported.

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The allegations have brought a new blow to ties with the US, which have already been shaken up when the US National Security Agency (NSA)'s massive spying on Germany was exposed last year.

Standing beside Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, Merkel said the case would break the "trusting cooperation" between the two countries.

A 31-year-old employee of the BND foreign intelligence agency has been arrested. Based on political and intelligence sources, the German man admits relaying documents to a contact from the US.

The information passed include those about a parliamentary body investigating former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden that Washington monitored Merkel's mobile phone and conducted a massive surveillance in Germany.

In Germany, surveillance is controversial because the Nazi's Gestapo secret police and the Stasi of East Germany ensured the citizens' right to privacy.

Merkel visited to China to oversee the signing of a deal involving the sale of 100 aircrafts of the Airbus Group NV to Chinese firms. The Chancellor warned China of local companies facing the threat industrial espionage from state agencies.

Merkel said German is against industrial espionage. She also said they just want to protect "intellectual property" as protecting the economy is one of the state's duties.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang denied that his government was involved in spying activities. Instead, he said both China and Germany are "victims of hacking attacks."

Li said China will conduct talks and consultation about maintaining Internet security. He said the Chinese government is determined to oppose hacking attacks and theft of intellectual property and trade secrets.

TagsUS, spying, Angela Merke, double agent, hacking