Kerry: China could have helped with Snowden case

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Brunei — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says the U.S. thinks China could have “made a difference” in the case of National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden if it had returned him to America to face charges.

But Kerry says the U.S.-China relationship is bigger than one incident and that the two countries cooperate on numerous issues, including North Korea.

Kerry spoke Monday at a Southeast Asia conference in Brunei.

Snowden’s efforts to evade U.S. authorities — taking him from a hotel hideout in Hong Kong to an airport transit zone in Moscow — have undercut U.S. efforts to strengthen ties with China and threaten to worsen tension with Russia just as President Barack Obama seeks Moscow’s cooperation on Syria.

Kerry is to meet Tuesday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.