Apple has refused to give source code to the Chinese government, a company lawyer said in a statement before the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Apple senior counsel Bruce Sewell said the Chinese government asked and Apple refused, according to The Hill.

"We have not provided source code to the Chinese government," Sewell said to the House panel. "I want to be very clear on this," Sewell added.

Source code is the foundational instructions in computer programs. It could be used to allow unauthorized parties to break in to Apple's operating system.

During an earlier panel, Capt. Charles Cohen, an Illinois state police commander, pointed out that he'd read several news reports on the topic.

"That's a huge allegation," Rep. Anna Eshoo said. "I think it’s very important for the record that we set this straight," Eshoo said, according to the Hill report.

The U.S. government had accused Apple of supplying the source code to China when Apple would not agree to the FBI’s request to disable security on an iPhone belonging to one of the San Bernardino attackers. The FBI dropped that case, Fortune reports.

Apple released a report saying that it had complied with 82 percent of the data requests it received from law enforcement in 2015.

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