But when the fate of the Internet is at the crossroads, we cannot afford to simply stand and watch. For now, the most important thing to do is to understand what really happened. Understanding should precede action. We should not rush into taking measures such as Chancellor Merkel's proposal for a European communications network, or Brazil's draft law that would force global Internet companies to keep data on Brazilian users inside Brazil; China should not take hasty action against Cisco, and by the same token, there is no particular hurry for the 122 targeted global leaders to meet to discuss solutions.

What is at issue here is accountability for the central technological innovation of our age: the Internet. The key question is: "Who is accountable when things go wrong?" Cees Hamelink of the University of Amsterdam warned of the technological challenges our society faces in 2003 at the World Summit on the Information Society, drawing attention to "the irrationality and irresponsibility" of our modern technological culture.

Hamelink recalled the tale of Dr. Frankenstein who created a monster that escaped and haunted its creator. The United States gave birth to the Internet, and it has turned into a monstrous espionage machine. Recently leaked documents describe an NSA tool called RETRO that can record and store the phone conversations of an entire country in a 30-day rolling buffer. The technology has apparently already been tested and proved against its first target.

The American people are seriously mistaken if they assume the gigantic power of the NSA is deployed only against non-American targets and therefore serves the American public interest. The fact is that there is neither an American, nor a German, nor a Chinese public interest. There is only one global public interest, and it is in danger. Developments such as the American Justice Department's seizure of telephone records from Associated Press and the CIA's trawling through of the Congressional network are signals that the American domestic situation is deteriorating.

It is only a matter of time before the sophisticated American spying apparatus is copied by other governments or, even worse, commercialized into new business opportunities. But if global awareness can be developed there is still time to prevent the worst scenarios from becoming reality. As for American accusations of spying by the Chinese government and Huawei, the United States has clearly mistaken its own monstrous image in the mirror for someone else.

The author is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit: http://china.org.cn/opinion/xupeixi.htm

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