Thanks to Snowden, a chance to reset Sino-US relations
Lanxin Xiang says the fallout from Edward Snowden's revelations may not be as damaging to Sino-US ties as feared, but could instead provide an opportunity for recalibration
Edward Snowden seems to have opened a Pandora's box. Unlike WikiLeaks, which has released official documents - often banal conversations between government bureaucrats - Snowden has exposed the operation of the world's most powerful state-sponsored cyberespionage of a community that most prizes individual freedom. Hero or not, Snowden will go down in history as a whistle-blower who triggered a moral earthquake which few individuals in the world can escape.
This is the cyberversion of George Orwell's .
Given that Hong Kong was Snowden's first choice of destination, most commentators seem to believe that the leaks have done great damage to US-China relations, which were only recently "reheated" at the Sunnylands summit in California. But the contrary may also be true.
First, there was little meeting of minds at the summit. The key Chinese preoccupations didn't match those of the White House. The Chinese wanted a consensus with the US over the meaning and content of a "new type of great power relations", while the United States, prior to the summit, was very much in the mood of avoiding another Peloponnesian War, a democratic Athens versus the military-authoritarian regime of Sparta.
Admittedly, the logic of this "new type" of relationship sounds rather old-fashioned, starting with the premise of a global power shift, and ending with the demand for recognition of equal status with the US. The US government refused to take it seriously. Moreover, another favourite theme of President Xi Jinping , the "China dream", was also met with disdain. President Barack Obama seemed unwilling to entertain Xi's claim that the Chinese and American dreams have something in common.
Post summit, Xi's greatest victory was to repel the attack by the US government on alleged Chinese cyberespionage, albeit with more than a little luck. The timing of Snowden's revelations disrupted the American strategy. The fallout will last a long time and will shield China from similar accusations for a while. The immediate impact is clear: the US is losing the moral high ground in the eyes of its own people and people all over the world.
