Edward Snowden and the NSA Leaks: What Does It All Look Like From China?

[xchrom]

http://www.theatlantic.com/china/archive/2013/06/edward-snowden-and-the-nsa-leaks-what-does-it-all-look-like-from-china/276761/



It's well known by now that former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden fled to Hong Kong after leaking information about the NSA's surveillance activities. With Americans increasingly aware of the role that Chinese cyberspace can play in gauging citizen sentiment there, significant ink has already been spilled exploring what Chinese Web users think of the latest revelations.

But to understand Chinese reactions to Snowden, and similar events that implicate the United States' reputation and its so-called "soft power," it's necessary to understand the role Meiguo -- the Chinese word for the U.S., literally meaning "beautiful country" -- plays as an idea in Chinese civil and online society. Meiguo's chief significance is as a marker by which Chinese development and reform can be measured.

This does not mean that the U.S. is always at the top of the Chinese collective mind. While there was certainly some revealing chatter about Snowden and PRISM on the Chinese Internet, even the most popular posts garnered only a few hundred re-tweets, and at no point did any related keyword or post trend.

If Chinese reaction to Snowden's leak is significant, it is because it contributes in a small way to an increasingly nuanced view of America and its politics. Debates about the U.S. drone program, for example, take place among followers of international politics on China's Weibo just as they do on Twitter. While some Chinese have lauded what they call Snowden's "heroism" as an example of American citizens' "civil awareness," others in Chinese cyberspace have begun to ask whether Meiguo is still deserving of its erstwhile status as a benchmark

[Laelth]

1. k&r for exposure. n/t

-Laelth