US spied on Chinese politicians, firms

Classified documents show that the US government has conducted a major spying offensive against Chinese officials and firms, with a major target being the telecommunications giant Huawei.
Former Chinese President Hu Jintao (left) and his successor, Xi Jinping (right): Chinese officials were targets of US spying.
Former Chinese President Hu Jintao (left) and his successor, Xi Jinping (right): Chinese officials were targets of US spying.
Documents provided by American whistleblower Edward Snowden and viewed by the German weekly magazine Der Spiegel show the US National Security Agency put considerable efforts into spying on former Chinese President Hu Jintao, the Chinese Trade Ministry, banks, and telecommunications companies.

A major target of the NSA’s spying operation has been Huawei, which is the world’s second largest network equipment supplier.

The US spy agency infiltrated servers in the headquarters of the Chinese company in Shenzhen, China’s industrial heart, showed the 2010 document which was also obtained by the New York Times.

The NSA gathered information about Huawei’s routers and complex digital switches and spied on communications of the company’s top executives.

“We currently have good access and so much data that we don’t know what to do with it,” one internal document reads, according to Der Spiegel.

As justification for targeting the Chinese company, the NSA document states that one of the goals of the agency’s operation, which was code-named “Shotgiant,” was to find any ties between Huawei and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army.

The NSA also sought to exploit Huawei’s technology and aimed to expand its spying activities across the globe by using computer and telephone networks the Chinese company sold to other nations.

“If it is true, the irony is that exactly what they are doing to us is what they have always charged that the Chinese are doing through us,” said Huawei spokesman Bill Plummer in a statement.

IT