Heedless US Use of Surveillance Will Escalate the Information War

On May 26, the Chinese Associated Media Research Center released its “U.S. Worldwide Surveillance Activities Report,” revealing its findings on the U.S. government’s surveillance activities in China. In addition to this, the Chinese government also released research revealing that the U.S. government has been actively monitoring China for a very long time. As frightening as it might be to say, if the U.S. and China cannot come to some mutual understanding on this matter and restrict these surveillance activities, the information war between China and the U.S. will only increase in scale and frequency.

To begin with, these incidents in China are the result of the U.S. itself getting caught in the act of theft. Lately, we have heard the strongest vitriol the U.S. has ever made against China over its cyberwarfare capacity. America has been regularly escalating its rhetoric against China’s cyberwarfare capabilities for some time. And now, the most recent attack has been the United States’ scathing condemnations and demands for the arrest of Chinese military personnel that have been involved in information gathering activities. These people were simply serving China as the counter-response to America’s own data theft antics. China has long known about U.S. surveillance activities in China. It knew about them even before ex-National Security Agency security contractor Edward Snowden fled the U.S. and went public with his information about the PRISM project. China knew that it, especially, was part of the global surveillance project. It never revealed this knowledge to the world, however, instead choosing to delay releasing these facts until now. China wanted to allow the U.S. sufficient leeway to save face over the issue.

Another point of fact is that these recent moves by China demonstrate clearly that China is strengthening the safety of its networks, especially where monitoring and anti-surveillance activities are concerned. China ought to take these initiatives further, instilling into the Chinese people the importance of protecting national secrets and the need for them to safeguard their Internet presence. At the same time, China should not dispose of its national safety umbrella. Instead, it should directly increase its anti-surveillance activities, and move also to strengthen the security of China’s computer software systems.

As a final point, this cyberdefense strategy of China’s serves as a good counter-move to America’s Asia-Pacific pivot. China hopes to use these events to show the world the United States’ double standard. Snowden’s revelation of American surveillance of all the world’s leaders is not a source of leverage with a one-time only application. By simply biding its time for an opportune moment, China can raise the Snowden issue again, reopen old wounds, and let the NSA and human rights watchdogs battle it out for the whole world to see.

Make no mistake about it, the modus operandi of U.S. intelligence agencies throughout the world are vile and reprehensible: Their long-time surveillance of allied heads of state, and the monitoring of these allies’ public and private telephone calls. Their theft of many kinds of information to a horrifying scale using technology that is second to none. Their search and collation of millions of telephone calls and Internet usage data, and their demands to search any user data that is kept in private business stores. Their eavesdropping in on calls without the slightest bit of integrity. And when carrying out these flagrant transgressions against U.S. and international law, they also do it under the banner of anti-terrorism.

China makes this criticism here to let the U.S. understand the role it played in raising the stakes in this destructive game. What this means is that, from here on, if the U.S. and China cannot come to some agreement on this issue, acts of cyberwarfare will only escalate in scale and frequency. To resist America’s fruitless games and the advanced surveillance activities that it is undertaking in China, China will denounce the U.S. and order it to comply with international requirements. China will also strengthen its abilities to detect and respond to U.S. intelligence activities. Furthermore, China will simultaneously undertake changes to become more competent in these intelligence activities itself. It will employ more specialists that understand these fields. It will regularly check the areas in which China is technologically insufficient, and take steps to remedy any weak points. All the while, China will balance this by wearing a mask of helplessness while in truth being extremely capable.

From now on, the U.S. stands in the light of its own shameful record. When the U.S. issues its tirades at other countries over their intelligence activities, America will find its lungs unable to hold enough breath to respond when those countries turn and criticize them in return.