Snowden effect changes US-China dynamic on cybersecurity

Edward Snowden's revelations a year ago that the US National Security Agency (NSA) had hacked major computer networks in Hong Kong and mainland China posed a dilemma for Beijing, Chinese experts have said. How should China handle the affair to its maximum advantage without jeopardising all-important ties with Washington?

For the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Snowden's revelations came at an awkward time. Just three days before Snowden gave an interview to the South China Morning Post detailing the NSA's spying programmes, President Xi Jinping had met US President Barack Obama at the Sunnylands estate in California. The Chinese side had attached great importance to the meeting and took painstaking efforts to prepare for it. Xi used the summit to put forward his concept of developing a "new type of major power relations" - one that allowed for a more equal, closer partnership with the US. But the Snowden incident immediately put the relationship to the test.

Some people in the US were already set against the idea of developing closer ties with China and were not happy with Obama cosying up to China, and the Snowden incident gave them the chance to come out and say 'You see, I was right,'" said Jia Qingguo , a professor of international relations at Peking University.

Beijing was unlikely to hand Snowden back to the US, given the scale of America's spying programme on China as laid out in his claims. "From China's perspective, it [the leadership] probably did not want to let him go back to the US. Our national security authorities probably wanted to get their hands on him," Jia said. "But China is working with the US on so many levels", and they did not want Snowden's presence in China to undermine bilateral ties, he said.

Even with the complications it brought, the incident offered Beijing advantages. Washington's credibility and moral position, both internationally and domestically, were now seriously undermined. On the issue of cybersecurity negotiations, for instance, China had suddenly gained greater leverage.

"In the past, cybersecurity talks [between China and the US] were a one-way thing - the US always made accusations about China's cyberattacks and internet thefts in a condescending tone," said Richard Hu Weixing, director of the University of Hong Kong's department of politics and public administration.