US in no position to blame Hong Kong over Snowden
Bernard Chan says it can't shirk its responsibility in the intelligence leak
As someone who went to high school and college in the US, I have American friends. Some think I have an inside track on intelligence whistle-blower Edward Snowden and his dramatic stay in Hong Kong. The truth is I do not. But I do know that Hong Kong and China were not the ones at fault. US officials who blame Hong Kong for letting Snowden leave, or politicians who say he was spying for China, should look closer to home for someone to blame.
It was the US, not Hong Kong, that decided to operate a global electronic spying operation, which even some Americans now believe is out of control. If Snowden is correct, that system collects data from our own local internet network. It was the US, not Hong Kong, that decided directly or via outsourcing to use the services of a young man who turned out to be disloyal. Hong Kong or China are not to blame for the US government's policy or recruitment decisions.
US officials could have faced up to the fact that they did not have the moral high ground this time
Nor can anyone be blamed for wanting to avoid a possible sensitive human rights case here in Hong Kong. The US would have piled pressure on us and on the central government to send him back. Local and international public opinion would have demanded that he be protected.
Indeed, the affair became a hot domestic issue. Some local people protested against the US for invading our privacy and threatening to persecute Snowden. Others, including some who often speak out on human rights issues here or on the mainland, went silent.
I am sure our courts would have upheld the rule of law but, either way, Hong Kong could have lost far more goodwill.
As several commentators have said, Snowden's departure might actually have been better for the US. In that case, US officials' criticism of Hong Kong was more a way to save face in front of their domestic audience. But the whole episode has damaged relations between Hong Kong and the US. Americans will see us - or China as a whole - as the place that let a traitor go. Hong Kong and people in the rest of China will see the US as the country that hacked into our internet data.