'Snowden coming to China will cause only trouble for China'

China is not going to open its doors to Snowden, though him releasing the information was incredibly useful for the Chinese government, Steve Tsang, director of China Policy Institute, told RT.

RT:China is reportedly among the countries Edward Snowden has applied to for asylum. Do you think Beijing, perhaps, might open the doors and let him in?

Steve Tsang: No, I don’t think Beijing is about to open its doors and let Mr. Snowden get onto Chinese territory. The Chinese government if they had wanted to get something from Mr. Snowden, they would have already got that information. Mr. Snowden going to China would only cause troubles for China.

RT:But now the Chinese authorities seem to be quite loyal to the leak. Otherwise why would they choose to speak out, while he was on their territory in Hong Kong?

ST: It was incredibly useful windfall for the Chinese government, when Mr. Snowden spoke out. And the fact, that he spoke out from a Chinese territory and making it clear, that one of those countries, what was being spied on was China and that include even a Chinese University. That was just really useful for the Chinese government to counter the American claims of Chinese cyber espionage against the US.

RT:But do you think that some of the Edward Snowden’s revelations actually worked in China's favor?

ST: He was certainly worked in China's favor, because the reality is that: in this world, everybody, who’s got a capability spies on everybody else.

The issue really is: who can claim the moral high ground? The United States has been claiming that moral high ground while at least until Mr. Snowden made his revelations, which really weakened the Americans claims to the moral high ground. And this is what became so useful from the Chinese perspective.

RT:Let’s suggest the issue of the latest, we’ve just heard here in RT, that Edward Snowden has withdrawn his asylum request in Russia. Why does he found so hard to stop releasing anti-American information?

ST: The value of Mr. Snowden and his capacity to stay in a limelight depends on him being able to say, that he’s got more to say. Once he’s got nothing to say, than his value falls.  Then it’s really just a matter of how he will be dealt with. And whether Americans will be dealing with him in accordance with American law. And all the other diplomatic wangles, that would be involved in getting Mr. Snowden to face justice in the US.