HONG KONG Is Unlikely Refuge for U.S. Secrets Leaker

HONG KONG (AP) — By holing up in Hong Kong, the American defense contractor who says he leaked information on classified U.S. surveillance programs has found an unlikely refuge from extradition. It might be temporary, however. Hong Kong’s protection of Edward Snowden is not a given. As a former British colony, the territory has a well-established, Western-style legal system. It is home to a boisterous media and outspoken public that ardently defend their rights to expression. And though a semi-autonomous part of China, it ultimately answers to Beijing, which is often at odds with Washington. That combination of sturdy legal institutions and strong political backing made Hong Kong an attractive place to take shelter, said Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald, whose reports last week that exposed widespread U.S. government programs to collect telephone and Internet records were based on information from Snowden. “There were no good options for him, so it just became a question of weight of all the various factors,” Greenwald said in Hong Kong on Monday. “There were probably other places that were more democratic but that would be more likely to hand him over to the United States because they wouldn’t want to resist the pressure that the United States would undoubtedly apply to get him.” (MORE: Edward Snowden Comes Forward as NSA Whistle-Blower, Surfaces in Hong Kong) However, the U.S. is one of the largest investors in Hong Kong, a major business center for East Asia. The U.S. and Hong Kong also have an extradition treaty and routinely cooperate on requests to transfer criminals; in one high-profile case, Hong Kong extradited three al-Qaeda suspects to the U.S. in 2003. While Beijing at times stands up to Washington, it may not want to for Snowden. Beijing has often criticized foreign governments for harboring critics of its Communist government. China also is seeking U.S. cooperation on retrieving corrupt Chinese officials who have fled to America, often with sizeable assets. Cyberhacking and cyberespionage have emerged as the newest friction in relations that Presidents Barack Obama and Xi Jinping pledged