Beijing
‘extremely concerned’ over leaked New Zealand spying reports
RT,
20 April, 2015
China’s
foreign ministry has urged New Zealand and US spying agencies to stop
hacking into Chinese diplomatic buildings in Auckland. This follows
reports exposing the practice and citing secret NSA files, which were
leaked by Edward Snowden.
New
Zealand and US intelligence agencies were hacking into a link between
the Chinese consulate and their passport office, according to
a report by
The Herald on Sunday in cooperation with The Intercept, based on the
Snowden revelations.
"We
are extremely concerned about this report. We strongly urge the
relevant countries to immediately stop using the Internet to damage
the interests of China and other countries," said
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei in a statement.
However,
the New Zealand Prime Minister John Key was unapologetic and accused
Snowden of being a thief and a liar.
"[Snowden's]
a thief and he stole and you've got a bunch of people who've been out
there propagating information that's actually been proven to be
incorrect," Key
said.
He
added that every country including China uses their intelligence
services to serve their own interests and that not one country
disclosed details of what they are up to.
"They
don't do it in the United States ... they don't do it in China, they
don't do it anywhere else," Key
said.
The
claims published in the Herald on Sunday and the Intercept allege
that New Zealand’s spy agency, the Government Communications
Security Bureau (GCHB), violated international treaties, which forbid
the interception of diplomatic communicatiions.
The
document leaked by Snowden clearly says they will instigate passive
and active surveillance on Chinese government offices in Auckland.
“GCSB
has identified an MFA data link between the Chinese Consulate and
Chinese Visa Office in Auckland. NSA and GCSB have verbally agreed to
move forward with a cooperative passive and active effort on this
link. Formal coordination has begun on both sides and GCSB is
providing additional technical data on the link to TAO,” the
document states.
There
is a difference between passive surveillance and active surveillance.
The former hoovers up data from phone and internet networks, while
the later involves the planting of spyware or bugs into phones or
computers.
In
the case of the Auckland operation, it looks like active spyware was
embedded onto Chinese government computers.
However,
it is not known if the operation is ongoing as Snowden’s leaks took
place in June 2013.
China
has repeatedly been accused by the US government of hacking into
American computer networks and was suspected of being linked to a
powerful hack on a New Zealand super computer. Beijing has repeatedly
denied all the allegations.
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