Does the eventual securing of Edward Snowden in Russia demonstrate the strength and wisdom of growing strategic ties between Moscow and Beijing? According to this editorial from China’s state-run Huanqiu, the two countries, adhering to a kind of burden-sharing arrangement, worked to further the interests of Moscow by boosting its diplomatic clout, exposed America’s moral hypocrisy on data security without significant harm to China’s interests, and won a victory on behalf of all parties except, of course, the U.S.
The Huanqiu editorial starts out this way:
U.S. President Barack Obama has announced he will participate at the G20 summit in St. Petersburg this September, but has canceled his one-on-one meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. A meeting between Russian and U.S. defense and foreign ministers will also go ahead in Washington on Friday. Although Obama has canceled his Moscow summit with Putin in “retaliation” for the Snowden incident, this is relatively insignificant. The U.S. is apparently prepared to swallow the fact that Russia has granted National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden a year of asylum. Russia has impressed the world, which regards the Kremlin as the “overwhelming winner” and the White House the “absolute loser.”
The perception of Russia as winner is correct. In fact, the Snowden case constitutes a victory for a global “united front” – every country involved save the United States has won. Washington, after a show of bravado, in the end failed to achieve Snowden’s extradition. By contrast, Moscow demonstrated its national character of decisiveness and boldness and successfully kept Washington at bay.
Many netizens ask, “Why couldn’t China be like Russia?” They believe we should have sheltered Snowden, but that China only showed “hesitation and weakness.”
We believe that if China had “actively sheltered” Snowden, it would have meant a major change in China’s diplomatic posture toward the United States. If we had done so, China would have had to undertake a variety of risks. This is unlike the current situation between Russia and the U.S. In China’s case, the U.S. has far more opportunity and means to retaliate, even if it wouldn’t have been the end of the world.
READ ON IN ENGLISH OR CHINESE, OR READ MORE TRANSLATED and English-language foreign press coverage as the NSA surveillance story continues to unfold at Worldmeets.US, your most trusted translator and aggregator of foreign news and views about our nation.
Founder and Managing Editor of Worldmeets.US