BEIJING, Nov. 1 (Xinhuanet) -- China has expressed concern at reports that the US was conducting surveillance activities in several major cities in the country. Speaking on Thursday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman asked for answers from the US.

"We are very concerned after seeing these reports. China demands clarifications from the US side. China requests that all foreign personnel and institutions abide by the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, and that they do not conduct activities that harm the interests and security of China." Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said.

Earlier in the week, Germany’s "Der Spiegel" said the US had around 80 locations worldwide, specially set for collecting intelligence. The report says many Chinese cities, including Hong Kong, Beijing, Chengdu and Taipei are on the list. South Korea and Japan, two allies of the US, are not on that list.

Spiegel says these intelligence collection units hack specifically into governments’ communications. According to former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, China is one of US’ major monitoring targets. In January of this year, the NSA hacked into Tsinghua University: as many as 63 computers, along with the servers, were hacked in a single day.

(Source: CNTV.cn)