China will consider whether NSA leaker Edward Snowden is an asset or liability to China's state security, Teddy Ng and Zhang Hong of the South China Morning Post report.
And after China determines that, apparently, the country will decide whether or not to extradite him.
In the meantime, Snowden is scoring points for China in the propaganda war.
Yesterday, China State television network CCTV weighed in on the Snowden case, saying he "risked his own life to expose the U.S. hypocrisy," the SCMP reports.
Beijing's decision about Snowden will reportedly be conveyed through Hong Kong, because Beijing won't want ruffle the U.S.'s feathers by appearing to be directly involved.
According to a professor at Peking University, Beijing's preference is likely to extract as much information as possible from Snowden and place his fate in the hands of the Hong Kong court system.
If nothing else, Snowden's leaks and accusations that the U.S. has been hacking China have been a boon to China in the relations between China and the U.S. Suddenly, China has gone from being the bad boy of global cyberwarfare to the victim. If Snowden continues to tell China everything he knows about U.S. intelligence, his assertions that he has the U.S.'s best interests at heart will likely rapidly come to seem hollow.