A case of the thief crying, 'Stop! Thief!'

Since Edward Snowden, the former US government subcontractor, stepped into the media limelight to reveal secret US surveillance programs less than two weeks ago, the war of words between the United States and China over cybersecurity has taken an abrupt turn. While watching the Snowden drama continue to unfold, the world has a chance to contemplate the US' hypocrisy and urge the country to stop peeping into other people's backyards.

In the past few months, high-ranking US officials had ratcheted up their accusations about cyberattacks and even cyber espionage allegedly by China. They claimed the Chinese government and military were behind the alleged wrongdoings. Such finger-pointing has cast a shadow on the generally rosy picture of China-US relations as it has helped whip up a new round of anti-China sentiment in the US.

China has repeatedly denied the US' accusations and the world's sole superpower has failed to provide any tenable evidence to justify its allegations. Beijing has offered to cooperate with Washington over cybersecurity issues as it, too, is a victim of cyberattacks. Yet it seems Beijing has been talking to deaf ears. Worse, with Western companies dominating the global media apparatus, Beijing's rebuttals and tangible concerns have more often than not been drowned out by the biased one-sided chorus of US politicians and the Western media, which have been loudly trumpeting a cyber threat from China.