The NSA committing warrantless wiretapping against US citizens at a large scale is a completely different beast from the NSA hacking Chinese computers. Especially given how China more or less publicly hacks away at the rest of the world, it would be very surprising if the opposite wasn't also true.
Also, there exists no human rights against having your computer hacked by a foreign government. It might be illegal in 10 different ways (actually, I don't even think it is, given the relative novelty of the crime and the slowness of international law), but it's not a human rights issue.
Except these are civilian targets in HK. Collecting arbitrary data on US citizens is no different from collecting arbitrary data on HK and Chinese citizens. Innocent people's privacy is still being violated on a large scale.
Of course the Chinese government also hacks US civilian targets, primarily American tech companies, but two wrongs don't make a right.
I meant from a moral/ethical standpoint, not a legal one. Obviously people who are not US citizens or residents have no legal protection under US law.
What I'm saying is that the effect of either action is more or less the same. The NSA is secretly obtaining the personal information of a lot of people who are in no way a threat to the US. Whether those people are American or Chinese doesn't matter one way or the other to me.
So glad the US is engaged in a worldwide effort to spread the good news of democracy! Look at how her leaders behave! What a vast improvement over those other non-democratic nations! </sarcasm>
Also, there exists no human rights against having your computer hacked by a foreign government. It might be illegal in 10 different ways (actually, I don't even think it is, given the relative novelty of the crime and the slowness of international law), but it's not a human rights issue.