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Comment by onetimemanytime | Hacker News Reader

More or less USA and Germany both want democracy, albeit with their local flavor. Free trade, human rights etc. If US spies (and gets its way), Germany might get their execs jailed for corruption or might lose a bid for, say, airplane engines. If China / Russia spy and get their way...we know what would happen.

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What happened after it was known that the NSA had tapped Merkels phone? Nada.

German NSA people privately said, "wow, smart sons of b*tches those NSA guys. Wish we could do that to Obama"

German spy agencies were aiding and abetting the NSA in the surveillance of the German population and looked the other way when it came to politicians and industry. That a NSA lapdog is critical of Huwai is no surprise.

> What happened after it was known that the NSA had tapped Merkels phone? Nada.

For understanding Germany, you always have to keep in mind that there is a deep ditch between the "political interests" of the government and the "political interests" of many citizens (that is also the reason why you will harly hear any German citizens speaking of "unsere Regierung" (our government), but of "die Regierung" (the government)).

The government is rather attached to the USA (that is why of course nothing happened after the NSA tapped Merkel's phone), while many citizens are deeply sceptical of it, be it for

- industrial espionage that was done on Enercon by the USA (see https://www.windpowermonthly.com/article/960011/trans-atlant...)

- very different beliefs on data privacy

- the Snowden leaks

- Donald Trump

- ...

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