The United States owes China an explanation about its hacking activities and should show more sincerity in the future when engaging in cybersecurity cooperation between the two countries, experts in Beijing said.

Washington is now in an awkward position regarding its cybersecurity dispute with Beijing, following revelations by whistle-blower Edward Snowden that the US has been hacking into computers in China for years, Jia Xiudong, a senior researcher of US studies at the China Institute of International Studies, said on Thursday.

Snowden, 29, a technician transferred by a private contractor to a US National Security Agency base in Hawaii, told a Hong Kong newspaper on Wednesday that the NSA had been hacking into computers in Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland since 2009. He has been taking refuge in Hong Kong since May 20.