Interview: Breakthrough expected in China-U.S. economic cooperation: expert (3)

LUCKY ACCIDENT, BETTER OUTCOMES

Meanwhile, Huang said former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden's revelations of widespread snooping by U.S. security authorities on China might be a "lucky accident" and could lead to "better outcomes" for the forum this week.

"Overall, this issue seems very negative, certainly in the American public opinion," however, "my personal sense is that in some ways this is actually a lucky accident," Huang told Xinhua.

"The issue can reduce the force by which the U.S. addresses the concern vis-a-vis China, thereby China will not feel like it has to be in such a defensive position," argued Huang, who served as the World Bank's country director for China in 1997-2004.

"If (the Snowden issue) allows both sides to not feel like they are the aggressor or the villain, then you might get a better outcome," he said.

"It could allow both sides to sit down and agree on what kinds of cyber activities can both sides agree upon as being inappropriate, and they can talk about it as equal partners in the discussion, rather than one side being the prosecution and the other side being the defense," explained the expert.

"Both sides should step back and say, let's try to tone down the accusations and talk about this more substantively. That has the possibility of yielding better outcomes," Huang added.

China and the U.S. have been preparing a working group specialized in cyber security under the S&ED to deal with the growing tension in the cyberspace.