Everything dates from June 5 2013. That was the day when former U.S. intelligence operative Edward Snowden opened the “Prism gate” to The Guardian, and ruthlessly ripped away America's fig leaf.

Overturning the image of the US

Relying on its advantages in technology and media, the US has always posed as the "moral arbiter", and has never hesitated to accuse other countries of hacker attacks. But "Prism gate" has knocked the US from its moral pedestal. Following Snowden's disclosures, the US is now more generally recognized as the "center of cyber espionage".

The exposed Prism program documents suggest that the US required its major telecommunication companies to submit the call records of their millions of users. In addition to its own citizens, the US also monitored the heads of state of 35 countries, including German Chancellor Merkel and Brazilian President Rousseff. Even the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon was on their list. The US has also been monitoring foreign enterprises and citizens of other countries.

As well as Prism, the US also has the XKeyscore program - a secret computer system which enables almost unlimited surveillance of the on-line activities of anyone, anywhere in the world. The U.S. National Security Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Central Intelligence Agency are all believed to play dishonorable roles in it.

Changing the conception of "allies"

Japan is the most devoted ally of the US in the Asia-Pacific Region, while the EU and the US regard each other as good friends. However, part of the U.S. monitoring action targeted 38 embassies and diplomatic offices, including offices of the EU, France, Italy, Greece and other European countries, and allies in other regions, such as Japan, South Korea, India, Turkey, and Mexico.

The US classifies its allies according to their reliability. According to the disclosures of Snowden, Germany and France actually belong to "the third level", namely, "the most unreliable partners", which also includes countries like Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

Reminding China to attach more importance to information security

With the largest number of netizens, and having experienced numerous cyber attacks, China is facing a severe reality. On the one hand, China is one of the major monitoring targets of the Prism and XKeyscore programs. Even the top leaders of China have been monitored. On the other hand, the US is hyping "Chinese hackers" and using its powerful media tools to accuse Chinese military officers of cyber espionage. And on the one hand, the US is trying every means at its desposal to prevent the products of Chinese companies like Huawei, ZTE and Lenovo from entering its core domain; on the other hand, Chinese telecommunication companies, even government departments, financial systems and security fields, are using U.S. software on a large scale.

China can no longer "run naked". We must attach more importance to information security and defend our network security. In the past year, the Central Internet Security and Informatization Leading Group has been set up, network security censorship has been issued, and The United States' Global Surveillance Record has been published.

One year later, the US is still quibbling. There is no introspection. And we are clearer about its hegemony and hypocrisy.

Snowden is still in exile, and justice has still to show up. 

The article is edited and translated from《一年前 斯诺登踢开“棱镜门” 现如今 全世界提防“窃密者”》, source: People's Daily Overseas Edition, author: Chen Zhenkai.