Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying demanded that the United States give an explanation about the surveillance program recently revealed by then-National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.
According to Bloomberg, Hua said that the U.S. needed to address the issue to the international community, and give a "necessary explanation," during a briefing in Beijing on Monday.
Snowden allegedly took off for Hong Kong after he threw the curtain back on NSA programs that assembled Internet and phone data under a United States government-run project codenamed PRISM. Hua, along with Chinese state-run media outlets, have called on their own government to find out whatever they can about Snowden, stressing the importance of exposure.
"China's internal public opinion, the media feedback, they all put pressure on China, which so far has been trying to quietly manage the issue," said associated professor of political science Zhang Baohui.
The U.S. Justice Department began an investigation on the NSA leaks, after Snowden claimed that he had been hacking into computers in Hong Kong and China since 2009 for the United States government.
The Global Times newspaper, a Chinese state-run publisher, released an editorial on Monday that claimed extraditing Snowden would prove to be an "unwise decision," because whatever repercussions occur thereafter would be problematic for mainland China.
"Extraditing Snowden back to the U.S. would not only be a betrayal of Snowden's trust, but a disappointment for expectations around the world," the Global Times editorial board wrote.
Just a few weeks back, President Barack Obama claimed that China's government was guilty of a string of hacker attacks-now, the Chinese media says that the American POTUS must eat his words.
Edward Snowden is on The Guardian website right now, answering any questions about the NSA leaks.
One user named GlennGreenwald asked, "why did you choose Hong Kong to go to and then tell them about US hacking on their research facilities and universities?"
"Let's be clear," Snowden replied. "I did not reveal any U.S. operations against legitimate military targets. I pointed out where the NSA has hacked civilian infrastructure such as universities, hospitals and private businesses because it is dangerous... Congress hasn't declared war on the countries...but without asking for public permission, NSA is running network operations against them that affect millions of innocent people. And for what? So we can have secret access to a computer in a country we're not even fighting?"
Ask Snowden anything here, or on Twitter by hashtagging #AskSnowden. He will be online for the next few hours.
