Which probably ought to be considered seriously as a real possibility. After all, if you wanted to rise up at some point and throw out the Chicom regime you'd need to be in a position of some power over the use of American economic and military might in the region.
That simply can't be ruled out ~ it's the way Sun Yat Sen did it when he set in motion the movements that eliminated the hated Manchu Regime.
Besides, the Chicoms don't control all the Chinese in the world with these capabilities. I can real quick name 5 countries where the Chinese own and operate all such capabiliy. Again, they paid for Sun Yat Sen in an earlier time too. They didn't stop paying to remove totalitarianism from China.
Now, about what NSA is doing with the phone call stuff, they could be trying to track down an organized alien presence in the USA ~ ....... ~ and that can be taken any way you want.