CAMBRIDGE – Ever since Edward
J. Snowden disclosed the National Security Agency’s ongoing collection
of massive amounts of electronic-communications data generated by United
States citizens and non-citizens alike, attention has been lavished on
his personal status. But the more important issue, even before Russia
granted him temporary asylum, is the status of American civil liberties.
Is the US guilty of hypocrisy, as Russia, China, and others have
charged?
To
answer that question, it is important to distinguish between two issues
that have become conflated in public debate: electronic espionage
against foreign entities and domestic surveillance of a government’s own
citizens.
Before
Snowden’s disclosures, cyber espionage had become a major point of
contention in US-China relations. It was discussed at the June
“shirt-sleeves summit” between Presidents Barack Obama and Xi Jinping,
and the two governments agreed to create a special working group on the
issue.
The
US accuses China of using cyber espionage to steal intellectual
property on an unprecedented scale. Among other public sources, it could
point to a study
by the cyber-security firm Mandiant, which traced many such attacks to a
People’s Liberation Army facility in Shanghai. China counters that it
is also the victim of innumerable cyber intrusions, many originating in
the US.
