Even if it's the second, it's still a failure of the US government because of NSA's overreach, which has given the Chinese or Russian governments the excuse to

Even if it's the second, it's still a failure of the US government because of NSA's overreach, which has given the Chinese or Russian governments the excuse to do this. It's basically the same argument civil liberties activists have for when a "freedom" country like US starts torturing people or censoring information. Doing that gives other much worse states the excuse to do it freely as well. If US then comes out and says "hey, you're such an awful government for torturing your people and whatnot", they will respond: "oh yeah? Right back at ya, buddy! Now will you get off your high horse?!" http://www.ibtimes.com/china-us-senate-torture-report-america-needs-clean-its-own-human-rights-issues-1745339 http://www.ibtimes.com/china-us-senate-torture-report-americ... That said, NSA spying is very much a national security issue. Why would you allow other countries to spy on you, hack you, and steal your secrets? I think it's natural to want to take any actions you can against that. It's actually disappointing that only "rival" countries such as China and Russia are taking measures against it. All the European countries should be doing it as well, especially since US doesn't seem to make any difference between China or say Germany.