The White House insisted on Friday that revelations about a vast US phone and Internet surveillance program would not undercut US complaints about Chinese cyber hacking at a key summit.
US President Barack Obama was due to sit down with Chinese President Xi Jinping for two days of informal meetings later in the day at the Annenberg retreat in California.
US officials have said that Obama will raise the issue of repeated cyber attacks emanating from China that have targeted US military and commercial secrets, some of which are believed to have been sponsored by organs of the state.
But Obama goes into the summit fending off complaints about US anti-terror espionage efforts, after reports exposed National Security Agency programs to sweep up phone data and tap servers of nine US Internet giants.
One program accesses the servers of firms like Google, YouTube, Facebook and Apple. It does not target Americans or those on US soil but seeks data solely on foreigners — a fact that could give Xi a card in the negotiations.
But White House deputy spokesman Josh Earnest insisted to reporters on Air Force One that the program did not undermine Obama’s message — and, to the contrary, enhanced his negotiating position.
“This is a pretty good illustration of the type of conversation we want to have about respecting civil liberties and protecting the constitutional rights of the people that you govern,” Earnest said.
“What the president did was he put in place a very strict oversight regime, one that he strengthened when he took office — one that constrained his own ability, constrained his own authority.
“I think that is a testament to the strength of our system of government,” Earnest said, shortly after Obama argued the spy sweeps were legal, endorsed in law by Congress and subject to continual judicial oversight.
Earlier this week, US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel accused China of waging cyber espionage against the United States, and intruding into sensitive US information systems.
Independent groups have also warned at a rising wave of commercial cyber espionage coming from China, as firms on the mainland seek to enhance their competitive advantage and mine US intellectual property.
Spy row will not undercut US-China summit: White House
