Note, though, that most Chinese people will use the exact same argument to justify the actions of their government.

From what I know about posts circulated in WeChat timeline, I would bet that most Chinese have already been brainwashed that national security should be defended at all cost and that Edward Snowden is a traitor whose action indirectly benefited motherland China, and therefore he should be applauded but not be learned from. Think the Nineteen Eighty-Four.

A fair amount of people think the same about our national security, but they're obviously not brainwashed, just good old patriots.

That's true, and their argument is valid, assuming they really are okay with trading off some potential increase in short term security with a rather certain long term oppression.

The question is how different the two political systems are, if they're both constantly spying on their population, and nobody can really do anything about it in either case.

One difference is that in China dissidents are thrown in prison in large numbers.

I suspect the WaPo's apparent hypocrisy is driven by actual hypocrisy - not biting the hand that feeds it. The CIA is a very big client of Amazon's.