China’s Xinhua: ‘Peeping Tom’ US risks own security by spying on allies

The Chinese government’s official mouthpiece, Xinhua, has made fun of the US efforts to wiretap every communication they could get, including their closest allies, which has eroded America’s own security “more than any terrorist would be capable of”.

Xinhua writer. Deng Yushan. points out that the major achievement of the US intelligence community’s unprecedented eavesdropping effort is a “trust fiasco” concerning the American state.

“One has to trust in order to be trusted. It is particularly true in friendships and alliances. America obviously failed to follow the simple rule,” the Chinese author says, concluding that trust is “the first and foremost casualty.”

The latest “cascade of eye-popping disclosures” about Washington “nonsensical” spying on its closest allies, particularly the news about America’s National Security Agency (NSA) eavesdropping on 35 heads of states, has insulted America’s closest allies in Europe and undermined their trust, claims Xinhua.

“As America pins its security on alliances, the tapping tale would sour its relationship with allies – and thus erode its security bedrock – more than any terrorist would be capable of,” the Chinese author argues.

The latest revelations of the former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, currently enjoying temporary asylum in Russia, has put the US at loggerheads with its primary NATO partners, France and Germany, which are now standing up together against these brazen surveillance methods.

As a result of Snowden’s leaks, Washington could find itself “deeply entrenched in suspicion and isolation” and regaining friends’ trust is going to be painful.

The Chinese media outlet has labeled the NSA approach to wiretap America’s closest allies in Europe “counterintuitive” and “nonsensical”, comparing pervasive surveillance to a “relentless and indiscriminate vacuum cleaner.”

“It just bugs everybody,” the Chinese author says, recalling German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who learnt that her mobile phone had been bugged for about ten years, and got so offended that she called President Obama in person to seek an explanation for the US policies towards allies.

While Chancellor Merkel and her European colleagues in general do have “every reason to feel insulted and betrayed”, they still “deserve the kind of respect and trust that underpins the practice that air travelers do not have to fly naked,” Xinhua writer believes.

The author fails to name motives behind the only superpower’s extensive eavesdropping effort, but particularly stresses that White House’s explanations are “far from explanatory.”

The Chinese author also cannot help but mention the situation with China and the US extensively exchanging accusations of cyber-espionage against each other.

Given the situation of scandalous revelations about the US being perhaps the world’s primary spy, Deng Yushan accuses “hyperactive Uncle Sam” of hypocrisy.

“The apparent application of a double standard only reinforces the image of a Janus-faced America. In the sunlight, it preaches; in the dark, it pries. On the offensive, it orates; on the defensive, it equivocates,” he writes, warning the US administration of “potentially more destructive consequences.”

Still, the Xinhua author expresses the hope that the US “should be wise enough to know that to trust nobody is no less dangerous than to trust anybody.”

“Uncle Sam needs to remember what happened to the tailor in the Lady Godiva story - Peeping Tom was struck blind,” the Xinhua writer recalled.