Report blasts 'unscrupulous' US surveillance in China

A Chinese Internet information body has complained of "unscrupulous" surveillance by US intelligence agencies over the rest of the world, and called for an immediate cessation of the practice.

A report by China's Internet Media Research Center published on Monday said the US has taken advantage of its political, economic, military and technological hegemony to spy without restraint on other countries, including its allies.

The operations have gone "far beyond the legal rationale of 'anti-terrorism' and have exposed the ugly face of its pursuit of self-interest in complete disregard for moral integrity," the report read.

It added that the spying "flagrantly infringed international laws, seriously impinged on human rights and put global cyber security under threat."

In particular, it described China as a main target of the US secret surveillance.

Chinese authorities have looked into the US National Security Agency (NSA)'s secret surveillance program codenamed PRISM, which is revealed by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

An investigation carried out by various Chinese government departments over several months "confirmed the existence of snooping activities directed against China," the report said.

Citing the Snowden documents, the report said US secret surveillance targeted the Chinese government and its leaders, Chinese companies, scientific research institutes, ordinary netizens, and a large number of cell phone users.

Foreign media reports suggested that Washington had spied on China's current and former leaders, the ministries of commerce and foreign affairs among other government departments, as well as banks and telecommunication companies.

The US magazine Foreign Policy reported in June last year that an "Office of Tailored Access Operations", created in 1997, under the NSA had successfully penetrated Chinese computer and telecommunications systems.

Earlier the South China Morning Post also reported US hacking of China's telecommunication companies to access text messages, and sustained attacks on network backbones at Tsinghua University, the country's most prestigious university.

Even computer games and social networking software were watched, the report said citing the Guardian and the New York Times reports. It added that Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei is also a target of US surveillance, according to the websites of Der Spiegel and the New York Times.