14 DAY TRIAL // The match between China and the United States over the Snowden incident seems to be nowhere near done.
During a meeting on cyber security held in Washington, the US Deputy Secretary of State William Burns took another jab at how Hong Kong handled the detainment of Edward Snowden, the NSA whistleblower.
"We were disappointed with how the authorities in Beijing and Hong Kong handled the Snowden case, which undermined our effort to build the trust needed to manage difficult issues," he said, as BBC reports.
The Chinese state councilor Yang Jiechi didn’t just stand there and allow the US to critique his country, but also avoided getting into a never-ending polemic.
“Its approach is beyond approach,” Jiechi said after stating Hong Kong’s actions were in complete accordance to the law.
It’s known that when the United States finally accused Snowden of espionage, they also sent out some documents to get him arrested in Hong Kong, where he had been hiding.
Two days later, however, Snowden managed to flee the country as local authorities didn’t act upon the desires of the United States. They claimed they had messed up his middle name, didn’t provide passport details or the charges being brought to Snowden.
Of course, if they had arrested him without proper documentation and didn’t follow the law to the smallest detail, China and Hong Kong in particular, could have faced international backlash especially since the case is closely watched from all corners of the globe.
The White House was quick to condemn the local authorities for letting Snowden slip through their fingers and flee to Russia. While China has an extradition agreement with the US, Russia does not and Putin and his administration are less likely to give in to demands and pressures coming from the United States.