10th June 2023 – (Beijing) A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson criticised the United States on Friday for continuing its wiretapping and surveillance activities worldwide, ten years after the “Prism gate” incident. The spokesperson accused the U.S. of being even more unscrupulous in its behaviour and trying to put more of the world in the shadow of its hypocrisy on cyber security.
The U.S. has not only run spying operations on UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the leaders of its allies, such as Germany, France, South Korea, and Israel, but it has also legalised its behaviour of eavesdropping on and stealing secrets from countries, according to the spokesperson.
In 2008, the U.S. Congress approved Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows the government to collect communications concerning foreign intelligence targets without a warrant. The act is set to expire at the end of the year, but the White House has claimed that extending the validity period of the act is the current administration’s key priority, the spokesperson added.
The spokesperson emphasized that over the past decade, the international community has more clearly seen that the US, a self-proclaimed defender of democracy and freedom, is actually abusing its own technological advantages, stealing information from other countries, and infringing on the rights and freedoms of people across the world.
The spokesperson also criticized the US’s “Clean Network” program, calling it another version of the “Prism gate” and accusing the US of trying to maintain its cyber hegemony and create an unchecked surveillance empire.
The US and China have been engaged in a long-standing dispute over cyber security, with both countries accusing each other of hacking and other cyber crimes. The issue has become a major point of contention between the two countries, and it remains to be seen how it will be resolved.