US' spying scandal has lessons for young people in Hong Kong

The quarrels and debates over US' spying activities of its allies in Europe are still going on.

Eight years have passed since Edward Snowden made public the Prism project, now it is known that the US continued to spy its allies after that project. It continued spying activities from 2012 to 2014 even after Snowden revealed its plans to the whole world in 2013.

In other words, the US government cared little about trust and even a scandal failed to stop its spying activities. No one knows whether the ongoing scandal would make the US stop this time.

Although the main victims of US spying are its allies, and it seems to have little to do with Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, which is an inalienable part of China that does not form allies. However, the scandal is still relevant to Hong Kong and offers some food for thought.

In June 2013, it was Hong Kong that Edward Snowden chose to flee to as his first stop, where he first made his identity public. That shows his trust in rule of law in Hong Kong, where he stayed for several weeks without any trouble.

That should be a reminder to some young people in Hong Kong who blindly believe in Western democracy. A man of conscience fled from the largest Western democracy to Hong Kong for help, where he felt safer than in that Western democracy.

But even this place of rule of law was not exempted from US spying. During his stay in Hong Kong, Snowden was also reported to have told a local media outlet that the US National Security Agency had been intruding computers in Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland since 2009, targeting Hong Kong Chinese University, public officials, enterprises and students.

So how ironical it is that the US national flag was held by rioters during their riots in 2019. Even more ironical is that consulate officials were still seen meeting the rioters during the riots in that year.

Hope the new scandal could teach young people in Hong Kong to see the US in a more clear way.