NSA leaker Edward Snowden, who claimed to The Guardian (UK) that he doesn’t “want to live in a society” that keeps tabs on all of its citizens, fled to Hong Kong in order to hide from the US government. Only one issue: Hong Kong is a special administrative region of the People’s Republic of China. Snowden explained his move to Hong Kong: “I think it is really tragic that an American has to move to a place that has a reputation for less freedom. Still, Hong Kong has a reputation for freedom in spite of the People’s Republic of China. It has a strong tradition of free speech.”
Under Hong Kong’s basic law:
Hong Kong residents shall have freedom of speech, of the press and of publication; freedom of association, of assembly, of procession and of demonstration; and the right and freedom to form and join trade unions, and to strike.
The freedom of the person of Hong Kong residents shall be inviolable. No Hong Kong resident shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful arrest, detention or imprisonment. Arbitrary or unlawful search of the body of any resident or deprivation or restriction of the freedom of the person shall be prohibited.
There is an extradition treaty in place between the United States and Hong Kong. There is no such treaty between the United States and China.
Ben Shapiro is Editor-At-Large of Breitbart News and author of the New York Times bestseller “Bullies: How the Left’s Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences America” (Threshold Editions, January 8, 2013).