But Snowden's revelations came while the U.S. government was carrying out its campaign against China on hacking. As the Financial Times put it: "In a matter of days, the Snowden leaks have turned the dynamics between China and the U.S. over the hot button cyber security issue upside down." It noted that "Beijing… could come to look like the victim of a U.S. smear campaign."

Furthermore it became clear that U.S. surveillance operations were a problem for many groups, not just China's mainland. Hong Kong, including its university, was a target. U.S. government attempts to placate domestic opinion backfired, as they tried to argue that surveillance was OK as it was primarily directed against foreigners. As one European official put it: "Foreigners? That means us!" German Chancellor Merkel was forced to protest.

Consequently, polls showed that U.S. public opinion supported Snowden. He was believed by 54 percent to have done a "good thing," while 76 percent believed there would be further revelations of even more widespread surveillance schemes. Following a classified Congressional briefing, Representative Loretta Sanchez warned that the NSA programs which have been revealed thus far are just "the tip of the iceberg."

This explained U.S. government officials' fury at Snowden, with House of Representatives Speaker Boehner calling him a "traitor." That was nonsense. Any terrorist is aware that the U.S. will be attempting to carry out surveillance on them. Snowden merely revealed the real operations of U.S. security services and the lies told by the U.S. government.

Snowden did not endanger U.S. security, but he virtually single-handedly destroyed the credibility of the U.S. campaign against China – not because Snowden supported China but because he was concerned with the truth.

It should be understood why we are seeing an increasing number of Snowden-type revelations. This is not, as is sometimes claimed, purely a technical matter, whereby Internet technology results in secret information being more widely diffused. It is, instead, the direct result of the present world situation.

U.S. governments used to be able to rely on the strength and success of their economy to convince U.S. citizens of the superiority of the U.S. system and win over foreign governments. To this end, U.S. foreign aid was much more widely used than U.S. military force. But the decline of America's relative international economic position means that it resorts much more to the use of military force. The last two decades have seen almost uninterrupted U.S. wars – twice against Iraq, in the former Yugoslavia, in Libya, in Afghanistan and now potentially in Syria. As U.S. international prestige declines, and its use of force increases, opposition by citizens, and surveillance to attempt to block this, have increased – inevitably bringing U.S. governments into greater conflict with citizens. This is why Snowden's are only the latest in a wave of revelations.

It has therefore become vital for the U.S. government to stop leaks which reveal the reality of its operation. The exposure of U.S. hacking operations against China greatly damaged the credibility of what was a large-scale U.S. government campaign to damage that country.

The U.S. government has long used Chinese citizens who are looking to damage China. But it was pointed out on Weibo, China's equivalent of Twitter, that the Snowden case shows a new development: Those opposing secretive or illegal actions by the U.S. government are now looking to remain in Chinese territory, in this case Hong Kong. The U.S. government desperately wants to maintain the situation where those who attack China can be protected in the U.S., but anyone aiding China by revealing the truth will be handed back to the U.S. If it can achieve this, the U.S. government will have more power to intimidate U.S. citizens and prevent them from taking objective actions which may help China, even if that is not the aim of their actions, or in this case, revelations. Therefore, despite the fact that the Snowden case is clearly a political one not covered by extradition treaties, the U.S. will increase the pressure for his return to the U.S.

The author is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:

http://www.h5a3.com/opinion/johnross.htm

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn