[skibble]

I’m not validating the automatic anti-China sentiment you can sometimes get in these discussions, but there is a major difference between the two. If you live in any mainstream European, or for simplicity’s sake, ‘Western’ country, regardless of your feelings towards U.S. intelligence gathering, these are political allies who share intelligence as a matter of course anyway. China is an actively hostile power who just recently penetrated the domestic U.S. phone network.

Obviously skepticism on this topic is a generally good thing, but I think nihilism to the point that one thinks the U.S. is no different to China, Russia or North Korea is neither accurate nor particularly helpful.

[tmnvix]

This makes some sense from a state's perspective.

As an individual I am more concerned about the spying that is effectively hostile to me personally. As a Westerner, I am fairly certain that this will be Western spying. I would expect a Chinese person to be more concerned with Chinese spying for the same reason.

[nicbou]

Political allies or not, the US has been caught spying on us just the same.[0] US companies constantly spy on EU citizens and use the data they illegally collect to influence our habits. While I don't fear a military conflict with the United States, there is an ongoing threat of having our elections, our culture, and our purchasing habits influenced by US businesses.

I'm not saying that the US is no different from China. I am saying that unlike the Chinese threat, the threat of spying from the US government and US businesses has been going on for a while already.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_espionage_in_Germany

[pepa65]

How do you see that China is an actively hostile power?