China Blasts the U.S. About Anti-Terror Surveillance Law – They’re Brutally Honest

China accused the U.S. and other Western critics of hypocrisy and “double-standards” Tuesday as it defended a new counter-terrorism law that gives authorities greater powers to monitor private communication.

The law, passed over the weekend, would also require telecom and Internet companies to provide encryption and other technical assistance to China’s anti-terror efforts.

Chinese authorities insist the new powers are necessary to combat growing terrorist threat at home and abroad.

However, State Department spokesman Mark Toner expressed concern over the law’s “overreach,” saying it “could lead to greater restrictions on the exercise of freedoms of expressions, association, and peaceful assembly.”

That criticism is “hypocritical,” state-run Xinhua News Agency said in a commentary published Tuesday, adding that the U.S. and other countries also have required technology firms to cooperate in terror-related surveillance. (Read more from “China Blasts the U.S. About Anti-Terror Surveillance Law – They’re Brutally Honest” HERE)

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