A Shanghai government spokeswoman on Saturday refuted a recent report by overseas media on Chinese engineers' alleged plagiarism of Germany's magnetic levitation technology, saying the report is "totally groundless. "

Jiao Yang, spokeswoman of the Shanghai municipal government, said the Chinese engineers accused of plagiarism by the German weekly Wirtschaftswoche were merely carrying out "a routine maintenance" of the maglev system.

She said the Shanghai government has noticed the Wirtschaftswoche report, which has been reprinted by several other overseas news organizations.

"We've investigated the matter with the Shanghai maglev company, and been told that the entire maglev system was handed over to the Chinese side after it passed the company's acceptance test on April 13 of 2004," Jiao said.

"It's therefore up to the Chinese side to operate, maintain and manage the system," she pointed out.

Shanghai's maglev system, the world's first commercial maglev line, was put into official operation in September, 2003.

(Xinhua News Agency December 12, 2004)