Throughout the past week, the US media have been dominated by revelations concerning America’s National Security Agency from Edward Snowden. Most of the focus has been on the NSA’s domestic surveillance activities and the extent to which it collects data traffic from millions of Americans. But on Wednesday, the whistleblower focused on another NSA activity: its spying on China. The NSA had “61,000 hacking operations globally”, with hundreds of targets in Hong Kong and China. This “gives us access to the communications of hundreds of thousands of computers.”
A claim like this should surprise nobody. The NSA, like most national intelligence services, does lots of spying overseas. That is what they are paid to do. But Mr Snowden’s words have allowed Chinese commentators to hit back at the US after months in which Washington has openly attacked China for its cyber espionage activities. The Chinese are arguing that Mr Snowden’s revelations in an interview show the US is hypocritical and guilty of double standards.
That argument must be challenged. The US and China both engage in cyber offence. But there are big differences in what they do. The US is largely focused on securing information that protects national security. China’s operations are alleged to be different. The bulk of its operations – often conducted by the military – are said to involve the theft of intellectual property from western companies. China has always denied such activity. But western businesses say they find it truly alarming.