Abstract
For many in China, revelations about mass surveillance by the US government highlight the superpower’s hypocrisy. But, says media expert
Beijing
French newspaper Le Figaro described the tale of Edward Snowden as a mix of spy thriller and farce. And when there is drama, there are heroes and villains: in this case the lone hero faces the mighty America, superpower both online and off – and the villain of the piece.
Even China’s official news agency Xinhua put it in such terms in an English-language commentary in June. The Snowden case demonstrated, it said, “that the United States, which has long been trying to play innocent as a victim of cyber attacks, has turned out to be the biggest villain of our age”. It continued: “At the moment, Washington is busy with a legal process of extraditing whistleblower Snowden. Washington should come clean about its record first. It owes, too, an explanation to China and other countries it has allegedly spied on. It has to share with the world the range, extent and intent of its clandestine hacking programmes.”
This is some of the harshest language yet to come from China’s official media. It was, however, only used in an English language piece, and not officially published for mainland consumption. This might have been because Xi Jinping and Barack Obama recently enjoyed an informal summit, at which China proposed a “new superpower relationship”. But more likely it was because the problems Snowden exposed also exist in China – and in China the problem is much worse.
On 21 June, a Caixin.com commentary, What does Prism show?, first explained the debate in the US, then turned to China: “Many Chinese [people] are angry over Snowden’s claims the US hacked Chinese networks. But for a rapidly changing China it would be more constructive to ask what this case teaches us about using the rule of law to balance freedom and security. The importance of this goes without saying.” The article referred to Wang Lijun, who, as head of the Chongqing Public Security Bureau, far overstepped his legitimate powers to set up a huge and illegal intelligence operation that claimed to be able “to search China’s entire identity database in twelve and a half minutes”. It went on to say that “this again shows how rampant power can run without independent judicial balances, without supervision by public opinion … how to ensure police and procuratorial authorities do not let another Wang Lijun arise is a major issue for China.”
Using the Snowden case to look at China meant that Caixin.com reporters and editors were inevitably labelled “rightist public intellectuals” by China’s anti-American leftists. One, posting under the handle of “the shameless Chongqing police”, commented on a Xinhua piece that named the US as the “biggest villain” about whom “anyone in the world with basic judgment skills would reach the same conclusion – except of course China’s public intellectuals, who are US lackeys”. Media commentators claimed China’s liberal public intellectuals had been dealt a heavy blow, with those who usually hold the US up as a model left in crisis. Wang Xinjun, a researcher at the Academy of Military Science, wrote in the People’s Daily’s overseas 25 June edition that “in a sense, the United States has gone from a ‘model of human rights’ to ‘an eavesdropper on personal privacy’, the ‘manipulator’of the centralised power over the international internet, and the mad ‘invader’ of other countries’ networks … the world will remember Edward Snowden. It was his fearlessness that tore off Washington’s sanctimonious mask.”
Snowden already has his fans on China’s social networks. Not because he tore off Washington’s mask, but because he provides an example: one man, taking on his own government. China’s internet users know life under surveillance all too well, and so admire the man who dared expose a government.
Snowden would make excellent if challenging material for a civics lesson on the rule of law, the constitution, of transparency, and of the balance between freedom and security. But in China we are not yet ready for a serious discussion of this case. And so Snowden, for China’s internet users, remains a conundrum.