China Rips U.S.; Mad 'Invader' of Other Countries' Networks

China's top state newspaper, The People's Daily,  praised Snowden Tuesday for "tearing off Washington's sanctimonious mask" and rejected accusations Beijing had facilitated Snowden's departure from Hong Kong, The Guardian's Jonathan Kalman reports from Beijing:

The strongly worded front-page commentary in the overseas edition of the People's Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist party, responded to harsh criticism of China from the US for allowing Snowden to flee. [...]

"Not only did the US authorities not give us an explanation and apology, it instead expressed dissatisfaction at the Hong Kong special administrative region for handling things in accordance with law," wrote Wang Xinjun, a researcher at the Academy of Military Science in the People's Daily commentary.

"In a sense, the United States has gone from a 'model of human rights' to 'an eavesdropper on personal privacy', the 'manipulator' of the centralised power over the international internet, and the mad 'invader' of other countries' networks," the People's Daily said.