Last week, U.S. Congressman Mike Rogers claimed to the European Parliament that Chinese cyber- espionage has already cost the U.S. economy 400 billion U.S. dollars. Rogers also told members of the European Parliament in Brussels that if the EU continued to muddy the waters of debate by focusing on U.S. snooping on European citizens and institutions, it might help China to spy on European and American companies.

Claims of this kind are without foundation – no more than an attempt to divert attention from International concerns regarding PRISM.

The truth is that, China is one of the victims of cyber espionage.

There have been media reports quoting Edward Snowden as saying that the U.S. government has been invading computers on the Chinese mainland and in Hong Kong since 2009, attacking hundreds of surveillance targets. This provides clear evidence that China has become one of the victims of America's cyber attack strategy.

Rogers' speech to the European Parliament was delivered with ulterior motives.

The PRISM spying scandal has caused a considerable amount of EU resentment against the U.S. The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) has been conducting massive phone surveillance in France, Italy and Spain, and even on German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other European leaders. The range of surveillance is extraordinary. Although it is supposedly one of the EU’s most important allies, the U.S. has refused to apologize over the scandal and has even refused to make any commitment to refrain from surveillance in the future.

Rogers, as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, trying to ease EU-US tensions, but the attempt to divert the concerns of the international community is unprofessional and irresponsible.

In recent years, the U.S. has maintained a constant refrain of accusations blaming China for “cyber- espionage”. In January 2013, the “New York Times” and other media claimed their computers had been attacked by Chinese hackers; in February, U.S. network security company Mandy Hentges issued a report stating that “China’s military is involved in hacker attacks”; in May, the U.S. Department of Defense released a report accusing China of improving its military technology through “industrial and technological espionage”.

There is no reliable basis for these accusations. They are nothing more than an attempt to create a "presumption of guilt" which will lend credence to any future allegations.

It is well-known that the U.S. leads the world in military information technology, and it is the only country to have been forced to acknowledge in public that it is waging network warfare on other countries. The NSA PRISM scandal shows that the U.S. has been stealing the secrets of other countries through its information network. Meanwhile, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee ignored the reprehensible conduct of the NSA, while leveling irresponsible accusations against other countries. As a senior U.S. official, Rogers should be making a contribution to the establishment of the new type Sino-U.S. relationship, not trying to place obstacles in its path.