Why Edward Snowden is spilling U.S. secrets to China

The NSA leaker is talking to the Chinese press, and he wants China to know that the U.S. hacks its servers, too

The front page of South China Morning Post is displayed at a news stand in Hong Kong on June 13.
(Image credit: AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Edward Snowden says he became so concerned about the National Security Agency's widespread collection of U.S. citizens' data, he decided to leak top secret U.S. documents to sympathetic journalists. So on May 20, recounts The Guardian, the NSA IT contractor boarded a plane for Hong Kong with a suitcase, a Rubik's Cube, one book, and four laptops "that enabled him to gain access to some of the U.S. government's most highly-classified secrets."

On the night of June 9, The Guardian posted a video of Snowden in his Hong Kong hotel room, introducing himself to the world as the NSA leaker and explaining why he gave up everything to blow the whistle. By noon the next day, he had checked out of his hotel room and disappeared — until Wednesday, when Snowden gave an interview to Hong Kong's English-language South China Morning Post.

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.