Hitting out at US for indicting five of its military personnel for cyber espionage, China today complained of "unscrupulous" surveillance by American intelligence agencies over the rest of the world, and called for an immediate cessation of the practice.
A report by China's Internet Media Research Centre published said the US has taken advantage of its political, economic, military and technological hegemony to spy without restraint on other countries, including its allies.
The operations have gone "far beyond the legal rationale of 'anti-terrorism' and have exposed the ugly face of its pursuit of self-interest in complete disregard for moral integrity," state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
The report came in the backdrop of US recently indicting five Chinese PLA officials for conducting cyber espionage on number of American firms.
The spying "flagrantly infringed international laws, seriously impinged on human rights and put global cyber security under threat," the Chinese centre said.
Chinese authorities have looked into the US National Security Agency (NSA)'s secret surveillance program code named PRISM, which is revealed by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
An investigation carried out by various Chinese government departments over several months "confirmed the existence of snooping activities directed against China," the report said.
Citing the documents released by Snowden, the report said US secret surveillance targeted the Chinese government and its leaders, Chinese companies, scientific research institutes, ordinary netizens, and a large number of cell phone users.
Foreign media reports suggested that Washington had spied on China's current and former leaders, the ministries of commerce and foreign affairs among other government departments, as well as banks and telecommunication companies, it said.
