The US is hacking Chinese mobile phone companies to gather data from millions of text messages, whistleblower Edward Snowden told the South China Morning Post in a report published in China Saturday. And Snowden claims he has the evidence to prove it.

National Security Agency (NSA) spies have also been hacking China's prestigious Tsinghua University in Beijing and Asia Pacific fiber-optic network operator Pacnet, the South China Morning Post quoted Snowden.

Snowden has been charged with espionage by the Obama administration after revealing the US governments massive data and phone spying program.

"There’s far more than this. The NSA does all kinds of things like hack Chinese cell phone companies to steal all of your SMS data," Snowden said.

Chinese government data shows almost 900 billion text messages were exchanged in China in 2012 alone.

The South China Morning Post  also reported that Snowden is not under police protection but is in a “safe place’’ in Hong Kong.