The Americans have a lot of nerve! They accuse China of espionage while they themselves spy on everyone, all the time, with very sophisticated means on land, at sea and in space!
Was the Chinese spy balloon really in U.S. airspace or in international airspace (beyond 22 km)? The U.S. military answered the question brutally by blowing up the foreign aircraft. This did not fail to provoke a diplomatic crisis between the two countries.
Spying on a large scale
Joe Biden’s America is offended by the overflight of its territory by spy balloons. However, the United States has also been practicing large-scale espionage of all the countries of the world and all the inhabitants of the planet for a very long time.
In February 2022, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched an NROL-87 spy satellite into orbit on behalf of the U.S. Space Force. The NRO, which depends on the Pentagon, “monitors international maritime traffic and communications of U.S. adversaries,” said it was the first satellite launched this year, but the 17th in two years!
Economic and geostrategic interests
Military espionage, but also commercial espionage, are a way to impose oneself in order to take the world leadership, to defend vital economic and geostrategic interests. All the great nations do it. China, Russia, the United States, but also Israel are the most advanced in this field. France is not to be outdone, but it does not play in the big league.
Spying cases regularly hit the headlines. We remember, in 2014, that Berlin expelled the head of the U.S. secret service in Germany after the discovery of spying operations on Chancellor Angela Merkel. Soon after, it was learned that all European governments were spied on by Once Sam.
Mass espionage
In 2013, Edward Snowden, a former CIA agent, reveals to the world the mass surveillance programs of the United States via the powerful NSA. He will be forced to flee and is granted asylum in Russia.
In 2020, a Washington Post investigation reveals that the CIA spied on hundreds of thousands of encrypted conversations between countries for more than 50 years by buying a Swiss encryption equipment company.
Private spying
Digital giants are the biggest threat to our personal freedoms today. They use spyware to track individuals’ info on computers and phones and store the harvested data before reselling it to private companies.
In 2019, the Israeli company NSO marketed a spyware named ”Pegasus” thanks to which private companies, but also official intelligence services, were able to listen to any type of smartphone without the knowledge, obviously, of their users. This malicious software allows a total control of the devices via the microphone, the camera, the SMS, the emails, etc.
This type of technology allows for massive surveillance of populations in all countries of the world in defiance of civil liberties.
China has certainly spied on the United States with their big round balloons. But the United States does much worse. Who can doubt it?
