For both China and America, the cybersnooping game will go on
Daniel Wagner says amid the many unknowns about the Snowden case, one thing is clear: cybersnooping will go on - on both sides of the Pacific
Last week, some in the US media speculated that former CIA employee Edward Snowden chose Hong Kong as the unlikely destination for his coming-out party because he was either in the employ of China as a spy or he intends to defect to China.
They also wonder how someone in his sensitive position could have used a thumb drive to simply copy all those documents and walk away.
Certainly, conspiracy theorists are having a field day with all this, and it does raise some disturbing questions.
The timing of Snowden's "revelations" is indeed curious, occurring as the summit between US President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping got under way in California, where the subject of alleged Chinese cyberspying was a central topic of discussion.
As a result of what has happened since, the Chinese government has benefited greatly; the tables have been turned on the US in one fell swoop, and China can now claim that it is the victim, rather than the persecutor. That certainly plays well at home.
This is rather useful for China and comes at a time when its growing economic, political and military strength has made countries around the region and throughout the world uneasy.
Part of the reason for the discomfort is that China has become so good at stagecraft - carefully calibrating its actions and knowing when to press on the accelerator or tap on the brake to obtain the desired outcome.