The debate over cybersecurity between the US and China could shift following claims by a former US contractor that Washington has hacked computers in Hong Kong and mainland China since 2009, complicating the potential for warming ties following last weekend’s presidential summit.
In an interview published online late Wednesday by Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post newspaper, 29-year-old Edward Snowden, a former contractor for the US National Security Agency (NSA), said he believed there had been more than 61,000 NSA hacking operations globally, including hundreds in Hong Kong and on the Chinese mainland.
“We hack network backbones—like huge Internet routers, basically—that give us access to the communications of hundreds of thousands of computers without having to hack every single one,” he was quoted as saying. Snowden’s whereabouts weren’t clear and he couldn’t be reached for comment.
A spokeswoman for China’s Foreign Ministry on Thursday said she had no information to offer and reiterated China’s stance that it is a victim rather than a perpetrator of hacking. “We also would like to carry out constructive dialogue and cooperation with countries including the US,” Hua Chunying said.
Experts on Chinese politics said the comments could complicate US efforts to stem what it says are cyberattacks by China on US targets that it says are often focused on commercial and business data. The subject was a priority for the US at last weekend’s meeting between US President Barack Obama and China President Xi Jinping.
Asked about Snowden’s claims in the newspaper interview, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki on Thursday said she hadn’t seen the reports but stated broadly that cybersecurity “is a priority to the US, and it’s important for China as well.”