US mute on Snowden case

China's foreign ministry Thursday said it has "no information" when asked whether Washington has requested the extradition of Edward Snowden, a former US National Security Agency (NSA) contractor who fled to Hong Kong after blowing the whistle on massive US cyber snooping.

In an interview with the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post (SCMP), Snowden, who has been hiding in the city after fleeing Hawaii on May 20, claims that the US government has been hacking into computers in Hong Kong and on the Chinese mainland since 2009 through a controversial program entitled PRISM.

The whistle-blower told the paper some of the local targets included the Chinese University of Hong Kong, public officials, businesses and students. The documents he exposed also point to hacking activities by the NSA against mainland targets, but none of the documents revealed any information about Chinese military systems.

Asked about the US cyber surveillance of China at a routine press briefing on Thursday, Hua Chunying, China's foreign ministry spokesperson, said the ministry has learned about the reports, but did not make any direct comments.

Hua reiterated that China is one of the world's major victims of hacking, while noting that Beijing and Washington had agreed to set up a working group on the issue under a strategic security dialogue.

"On the issue of Internet security we believe that having double standards does not help find an appropriate resolution," she said.

Revelations of the PRISM program came at a delicate time last week as Chinese President Xi Jinping met US President Barack Obama in California.

Since early this year, Washington has been accusing Chinese hackers of accessing US business and military secrets, a claim China firmly denied.

However, the exposure of the PRISM program has forced Obama to lower his rhetoric over the issue in public. The two leaders pledged to work together to try to resolve disputes over cyber security and lay down common rules.

"The leak showed that the US has been hacking foreign countries in a more professional, systematic and lasting manner. It changed the game between China and the US over cyber security and scored a point for China during the summit," Qin An, head of the China Institute of Cyberspace Strategy, told the Global Times Thursday, adding that the criticism toward Snowden revealed the hypocrisy of the US.

An article seen on the Foreign Policy website earlier this week also revealed that a highly secretive unit of the NSA called the Office of Tailored Access Operations has successfully penetrated Chinese computer and telecommunications systems for almost 15 years.

"We hack network backbones - like huge Internet routers, basically - that give us access to the communications of hundreds of thousands of computers without having to hack every single one," Snowden told the SCMP, noting he believed there had been more than 61,000 NSA hacking operations globally.

During the interview with the SCMP, Snowden also claimed that the US is putting "bullying'' diplomatic pressure on Hong Kong to extradite him.

"I have had many opportunities to flee Hong Kong, but I would rather stay and fight the US government in the courts, because I have faith in Hong Kong's rule of law," he told the paper.

When asked whether the US has requested the extradition of Snowden, Scott Robinson, a spokesperson at the US Consulate General in Hong Kong and Macau, Thursday did not give direct comment, but referred the Global Times to a Sunday statement by the US Department of Justice (DOJ).

In the statement, DOJ spokeswoman Nanda Chitre said the department is in the initial stage of an investigation into the case, and declined further comment.

"The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government does not comment on individual cases. All cases will be handled in accordance with the laws of Hong Kong," an HKSAR government spokesperson told the Global Times Thursday.

The US has an extradition treaty with Hong Kong, but the extradition could be refused on the grounds that it is related to defense, foreign affairs or essential public interest or policy.

The issue is seen as a thorny one for Beijing.

Jia Qingguo, a deputy dean at Peking University's School of International Studies, told Reuters that Beijing did not want to rock the boat so soon after a successful summit.

However, Zhu Feng, a professor at the same school with Jia, told the Global Times Thursday that the extradition has nothing to do with the mainland, and it is not necessary for Beijing to step in given the "one country, two systems" model.

"It is not a problem for Sino-US ties, and it should be decided by Hong Kong's judicial system," Zhu said.

Zheng Hailin, director at the Hong Kong Research Center of the Asia-Pacific Studies, echoed this opinion, saying the best solution is to leave it to the HKSAR government.

"I think the SAR government could withstand pressure from the US, which labels itself as the country which respects freedom of speech the most," Zheng told the Global Times.

"It could also minimize its impact on the Sino-US relationship, and win the Chinese mainland credit internationally," Zheng said Thursday.

The program has drawn dissatisfaction from around the world, including US allies.

The EU's chief justice official Viviane Reding has written to the US attorney general demanding an explanation for the collection of foreign nationals' data through the PRISM program, Reuters reported.

Agencies contributed to this story