By Zachary Keck
The controversy over the U.S. National Security Agency’s global espionage operations appears to be spreading to Asia, where it is already sparking outrage among some of America’s allies and partner states.
Readers will recall that the NSA story began in Asia when former NSA contractor Edward Snowden first fled to Hong Kong immediately before news organizations began publishing stories about the documents he leaked. During Snowden’s brief stay in Hong Kong, some stories came to light about U.S. spying operations in Hong Kong and the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Although these attracted a lot of attention in China, they failed to garner much interest elsewhere amid Snowden’s leaks about the NSA’s domestic spying operations and his dramatic stay in Moscow's airport. Ultimately, no one was particularly surprised to learn the U.S. was spying on China.
Since that time, Asia has remained largely on the periphery of the NSA controversy, which has more prominently focused on the agency's domestic operations as well as ones targeting Latin America and European countries. One of the only major exceptions to this came in early July when it was revealed that the NSA was spying on 38 foreign embassies in DC, including key U.S. allies and partners in Asia such as South Korea, Japan, and India.
Events over the last month or so, and especially in the last week, strongly suggest the NSA controversy is starting to engulf the Asia-Pacific as well.
Read the full story at The Diplomat