And that is one of the reasons it would be a good idea for the US and other Western countries to dial down some of their more aggressive actions: those actions set precedence that encourage other countries like China to match the escalation.
There does seem to be a difference, though. The US monitors communications, adds backdoors to infrastructure to monitor communications, and injects malware into Iranian nuclear reactors that could be used to make weapons.
China, on the other hand, deliberately attacks anyone who criticises their government. In the US you are perfectly free to say the government are a bunch of fuckwits who should be kicked out of office, if that is your opinion.
I'm not necessarily saying that what the US does is legal or morally acceptable, just that it is more morally acceptable than what China does. It's like the difference between a private investigator illegally breaking into someone's house to gather information, and a gangster going in and shooting everyone.
I'm not even taking a position on whether action A is more morally acceptable than action B. I'm just saying, maybe so, but at the end of the day, not only are they both ethically dodgy but A creates an environment that encourages B, so that in itself is reason to think A should be dialed back a few notches.
