Washington said Thursday that China's handling of Edward Snowden was "disappointing" and undermined the "trust" between the two global economic powers.
The U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns made the statement just after talks with senior Chinese officials who were in Washington for the U.S.-China annual strategic and economic dialogue.
"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," said William Burns, according to the BBC News.
The Former CIA analyst Edward Snowden is reportedly holed up in the transit zone of an international airport in Moscow since he flew from Hong Kong following an arrest warrant issued by the Washington government on charges of espionage and theft of government property.
Hong Kong last month did not stop him from flying to Russia and later said Washington got Snowden's name wrong in the arrest warrant.
Responding to Washington's disappointment, Beijing said Hong Kong had acted in accordance with the territory's law and had done nothing wrong.
"Its approach is beyond reproach," said Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi.
Citing an unidentified former U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) official, Washington Post on Thursday reported that NSA feared that the American whistleblower might have accessed files that reveal how Washington spies on China and other strategic countries.
An internal review revealed that Snowden "was able to range across hundreds of thousands of pages of documents," according to the U.S. official.
Snowden has applied for asylum to various countries and his request has been rejected by almost all European countries and India. Latin American countries including Venezuela with whom U.S. doesn't enjoy a good relationship are the only hope for the American fugitive.
