That's fine, and it's your prerogative, surely. However you must notice there is arbitrary antagonism throughout the thread to which I am responding, not intending to 'inflame' however much that may have been the case and I'm sorry for that.
No, I'm not kidding. The oil in Iraq is 100% under their control. America derives no wealth from Iraqi Oil.
If you want to learn something about it, read up [1]
Of course, some of it is independently controlled by Kurds, and some of it in hostile areas, but it has nothing to do with America.
Will they be rich like Saudis? No, because there isn't quite enough of it, it's in 'hot zones', they still have geopolitical instability making the system totally inefficient.
But again: it's Iraqi oil - not something 'stolen by America'.
Most of the Oil in Iraq is extracted by foreign companies, as I mentioned, a lot of it is extracted by local irregular entities - and the beneficiaries on the other side of the equation, i.e. the 'buyers' of the Oil is
>>> "Why is Saudi a saint"
Who said Saudi Arabia was a saint?
Basically - nobody is saying that.
Saudi Arabia makes headlines daily for their abuses. The US/UK/Canadian (and others) are under a lot of pressure as we speak to limit military sales.
What separates 'China' from 'Saudi Arabia' is the fact that one represents an existential concern, outside their borders, one does not.
China wants to rule that side of the world.
The 'House of Saud' is content to have it's little fiefdom. Of course, the Wahabbis are exporting an ideology, and money flows from Saudi into some not-so-good things, but that's not the House of Saud.
Osama Bin Laden's primary objective was to overthrow the Saudi gov. - the 'destroy America' thing comes much later.
The Saudi Arabian government a) actively works with other powers to track down terrorists b) has a de-facto kind of peace with Israel c) ensures that their Oil flows freely into global markets d) is not trying to overthrow Iran e) is not trying to steal industry and IP f) is not trying to build an army/navy to cause a lot of trouble far beyond their borders. (And Yemen FYI is on their border, it's a spillover problem)
Saudi Arabia is a 'decent state actor' with a lot of internal social problems we don't like.
China has become a hostile economic entity, and is becoming more so a military adversary with concerns about it's borders.
If you're comparing Xianjiang and what's happening at the border then this is not eve remotely 'equal opportunity' criticism - it's classical Chinese moral relativism.
In Xianjiang people are being rounded up for their religion or ethnicity, thrown into concentration camps, made 'non-persons', tortured, killed, if they die on trumped up charges their organs are harvested. It's Nazi-Germany level stuff.
The US is not 'putting children in prison' - the US (was previously) holding people who are trying to enter the country due literally to the prosperity of the nation. They are well treated and are free to leave any time.
Now that the rule has been discarded, migrants bring their children specifically on the dangerous journey because they know if they bring their kids, they don't have to go into detention.
This year there there has been a massive upswing in illegal migration precisely because migrants now know the golden legal loophole: bring a child - and they won't have to be held, they can immediately enter the country. And of course, the irony of the fact these people are desperately trying to get in to the country should not be lost on anyone making morally relative claims comparing that situation to Xianjiang.
"USA steals a lot of stuff too. But of course the American press won't tell you about that. Or if they mention it, they will put phrase it like "America liberated the population of Irak "
This is complete rubbish.
The US is not in the business of industrial espionage for commercial purposes - either on a corporate or governmental level, where China is.
Second - geopolitical issues have nothing to do with theft of IP, and usually not even resources (at least not in Central America).
'Central American countries' or 'Iraq' definitely have nothing to offer the US or anyone else in terms of the kind of IP theft one might be concerned about in China.
America did not 'steal' anything from Iraq - their Oil is their own, they receive 100% of the revenue, not only that, they are free to partner with any company they use, in fact, they ended up going with entities like Total (France), Statoil (Russia) etc. instead of US companies. (I guess as a 'thanks' for the fact they are now free to do as they please, and the Oil belongs to the people of Iraq instead of Saddam Co.)
"China is bad" because they steal IP, there is no rule of law, there is widespread corruption, pollution, there is total control of the people by the state and people dissapear of the street for no reason.
Literally, as we speak, China is incarcerating 100's of thousands, possibly millions of people due to their ethnicity or religion, and harvesting their organs as they are killed on trumped up charges. [1]
When we use the term 'Nazi' or 'concentration camps', usually it's hyperbole - but it's not: we now have a major power rounding up people by the millions due to ethnicity and culling their organs. This is actualy Nazi level stuff.
The level of moral relativism implied here is repulsive.
Snowdon is not in 'hiding' - if the Russians wanted to hide him, they probably could. But they are not, ergo, the US knows anything they want to know about him.
Russia does not need this or any other reason, they are already doing this to the extent they can. The public nature of this will provide some political cover, but that's it.
As to 'what it gets' it entirely depends on the kind of information that was obtained, the inherent risks and cost, the targets etc..
Maybe there were specific targets, a specific needs, maybe they were casting a net - who knows.
Espionage against a country that has 1000 nuclear warheads pointed at you, and practices using them, is a very responsible thing to do, and very much sanctioned by government.