'Complete disregard for moral integrity': China lambasts US spying tactics
China has labeled the US take on cyber-spying a “complete disregard for moral integrity” and has accused the country of taking advantage of its geopolitical hegemony to spy on others, a Chinese report by an internet information body stated on Tuesday.
Beijing said that US methods involved broad-scale attacks against the Chinese government.
“America's spying operations have gone far beyond the legal rationale of ‘anti-terrorism’ and have exposed the ugly face of its pursuit of self-interest in complete disregard for moral integrity,” concluded the research published by the China Academy of Cyber Space.
“As a superpower, the United States takes advantage of its political, economic, military and technological hegemony to unscrupulously monitor other countries, including its allies,” the report added.
‘America’s Global Surveillance Record’ was released one week after the US accused five Chinese military officers of hacking US computer systems.
The US Justice Department took the unprecedented move of publishing, together with a 48-page indictment, the photographs of the five.
A subsequent editorial in the Global Times, a subsidiary of the People’s Daily, the official journal of China’s Communist Party, was packed with insults aimed at Washington on May 21.
China announced last Thursday that it would be investigating providers of important IT products and services following the row.
“We should encourage organizations and individuals whose rights have been infringed to stand up and sue Washington,” the newspaper said.
‘America’s Global Surveillance Record’ accused the US of specifically targeting China.
“Targets of American surveillance include the Chinese government and Chinese leaders, Chinese companies, scientific research institutes, ordinary netizens, and a large number of cell phone users,” the report said, saying that among NSA targets were the Ministry of Foreign affairs and Huawei Technologies Co.
“US spying operations penetrate every corner of China,” it said. The report referenced foreign newspaper reports of US online surveillance, which have been revealed little-by-little by documents from former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.
Additionally on Tuesday, China announced that it was reviewing its domestic banks’ dependence on International Business Machines Corp. (IBM), according to Bloomberg sources.
The People’s Bank of China and the Ministry of Finance were among those requesting banks remove the servers and trial a local brand. The four sources requested to be kept anonymous, as the review was not considered public.
