[koonsolo]

> Why is US pretending to be friend with an enemy that is out to steal anything in US that isn’t locked down?

In the same reasoning, you could argue that EU should consider US as an enemy, since there is plenty of evidence on US spying on EU.

So please explain why it's not OK for China to spy on US, but it's ok for US to spy on EU.

[Sabinus]

The US listening to Merkel's private communications is more expected in international spying. Having teams of state sanctioned hackers target commercial and educational bodies to steal technology to replicate back home is a bit different.

[koonsolo]

You mean more like the industrial/economic espionage of ECHELON, where various European companies lost billions of dollars?

You mean China is doing something similar to that?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECHELON#Concerns

"In 1999, Enercon, a German company and leading manufacturer of wind energy equipment, developed a breakthrough generator for wind turbines. After applying for a US patent, it had learned that Kenetech, an American rival, had submitted an almost identical patent application shortly before. By the statement of a former NSA employee, it was later discovered that the NSA had secretly intercepted and monitored Enercon's data communications and conference calls and passed information regarding the new generator to Kenetech"

Please tell me the difference again...