Snowden revelations on NSA strain US-China relations, says Beijing [View all]

[Catherina]

Source: The Guardian

Snowden revelations on NSA strain US-China relations, says Beijing

State-run China Daily points to countries' 'soured relationship' on cybersecurity and suggests huge surveillance net is unjustified

Warren Murray
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 13 June 2013 03.42 BST



China has warned that revelations of electronic surveillance on a huge scale by American intelligence agencies will "test developing Sino-US ties" and exacerbate their "soured relationship" on cybersecurity.

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Jen Psaki, a spokeswoman for the State Department in Washington, said it was not aware of the hacking claims and could not comment directly, but she rejected the idea that such an incident would represent double standards given recent US criticism of Chinese cyber attacks. "There is a difference between going after economic data and the issues of surveillance that the president has addressed which are about trying to stop people doing us harm," she said.

The China Daily article addressed the issue directly. It quoted Li Haidon, a researcher of American studies at the China Foreign Affairs University, as saying: "For months Washington has been accusing China of cyber-espionage but it turns out that the biggest threat to the pursuit of individual freedom and privacy in the US is the unbridled power of the government."

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In another development, the British foreign secretary, William Hague, rejected suggestions that US surveillance programs were being used by UK authorities to avoid local privacy laws and spy on British citizens. On a visit to Washington where he met the US secretary of state, John Kerry, Hague said: "No two countries in the world work more closely to protect the privacy of their citizens than the United Kingdom and the United States."

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Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/13/snowden-revelations-nsa-china-relations