Edward Snowden has now made it clear that he intends to stay in Hong Kong and fight extradition to the US through the local courts. Legal experts there seem to reckon that – if Hong Kong’s courts operate normally, then Snowden will probably be put back onto a plane to America.
However, Hong Kong is actually part of the People’s Republic of China. And, although under “one country, two systems”, the Hong Kong legal system is independent, China has the final say on matters affecting national security and foreign policy. So, if Beijing chose to classify the Snowden extradition in this way, it definitely could intervene to prevent it. The question is, how will the government in Beijing play this?
I think it must be a rather delicious dilemma for the Chinese government – a win-win to use the hideous jargon they have borrowed from the West.