US-China Summit Shows Two Powers 'In the Same Boat...: A successful weekend summit between US President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping points to the countries boosting cooperation on issues such as North Korea, says one Chinese academic.
In this Saturday, June 8, 2013 file photo, President Barack Obama, right, and Chinese President Xi Jinping wave as they walk at the Annenberg Retreat of the Sunnylands estate in Rancho Mirage, Calif. Weekend revelations that an American whistleblower holed up in Hong Kong has given an early test to the new working relationship the presidents of the U.S. and China tried to forge just a day earlier. / AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File
BEIJING — A day after the presidents of China and the United States ended their first summit, pledges of cooperation by the two leaders faced an early test from an unexpected quarter -- an American intelligence contractor was leaking highly sensitive U.S. surveillance programs from his hiding place in the Chinese territory of Hong Kong.
China, which has long chafed at U.S. accusations that it carries out extensive surveillance on American government and commercial operations, may now have to make a decision on how to deal with the problem presented by the 29-year-old Edward Snowden, who has come out as the source of the leaks.
Cyber-security was one of the main topics during the informal summit this weekend between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and President Barack Obama at an estate in the California desert where they also sought to build a personal relationship.
But Snowden's presence in Hong Kong has already dragged China into what would have been a domestic issue for the United States.
"It's going to be seen by both sides as an unwelcome distraction," said Jean-Pierre Cabestan, a China politics expert at the Hong Kong Baptist University.
"This comes at a delicate time because of the Xi-Obama summit and the much bigger issues that both countries have to tackle and both governments and presidents have to discuss."
The Guardian newspaper reported Sunday that Snowden — who says he worked at the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency — is the self-confessed source of leaks about a phone records monitoring program and an Internet scouring program. Snowden was working as a contractor in an NSA office in Hawaii until he left for Hong Kong on May 20, the Guardian reported.
Snowden's exact whereabouts today were unclear.
U.S. officials see cybersecurity as probably the most pressing bilateral challenge, and Obama confronted Xi with specific evidence of intellectual property theft the U.S. says is coming from China. Xi said China was also a victim of cyber-attacks but did not publicly acknowledge his own country's alleged activities.
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