Washington should abandon its surveillance program and take steps to strengthen cybersecurity cooperation with Beijing

Former CIA agent and National Security Agency operative Edward Snowden left Hong Kong about three weeks ago, but the world's attention is still on the man who exposed the US' global surveillance program. The flight of Snowden from Hong Kong to Moscow sparked a war of words between the US and China, with the US State Department warning that the incident could harm bilateral relations.

The possible fallout of the Snowden incident, however, is yet to be assessed. To do that, we have to focus on two aspects: PRISM, the program which Snowden exposed, and Hong Kong authorities' permission to Snowden to leave the city.