Snowden leaks unlikely to sway cyber theft negotiations with China, expert says

Cybersecurity expert James Lewis told a House panel that recent leaks about American surveillance activities were unlikely to prevent the United States from confronting China over billions of dollars in intellectual property (IP) theft during this week’s dialogue between the two nations.

Lewis, from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told the oversight arm of the House Commerce Committee that Chinese officials will test how much advantage over the U.S. they can get from former government contractor Edward Snowden's revelations. "They are unlikely to get much negotiating benefit from his revelation because the U.S. has always told China that military espionage is a two-way street and that it is China’s commercial espionage that creates problems,” he said.