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Chinese media accuse U.S. of abusing power in NSA spying scandal

BEIJING, June 13 (UPI) -- Chinese media outlets expressed outrage over revelations about the U.S. electronic surveillance program, accusing Washington of abusing its power.

The criticisms have emerged as the Chinese government remained silent on the controversy, the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday.

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In a cartoon, the English-language China Daily showed a tape recorder and microphone replacing the torch and tablet held by the Statue of Liberty.

Global Times, the Communist Party mouthpiece, charged in an editorial "Washington owes China an explanation of whether the U.S. as an Internet superpower abused its power over our vital interests."

The pro-Communist newspaper in Hong Kong, Takungpao, said "President Obama should sincerely apologize to the people from other countries whose privacy was violated."

The United States has been politically embarrassed since a former government contractor, Edward Snowden, leaked information about the secret National Security Agency program. Cybersecurity was the top agenda item last weekend in a meeting between Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Still, China has been repeatedly accused of invasion of privacy and human rights abuses.

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Chen Ziming, who was active in the 1989 pro-democracy movement in China, charged, it is "unfair to compare what the U.S. does to China."

"The U.S. program is trying to prevent certain terrorist activities while China is listening in to monitor what dissidents are saying and writing. People get thrown into jail here just for an email," he said.

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