Choosing Hong Kong Is a Brilliant Move by Edward Snowden

This is by far the most informative [edit: if speculative] article I've read on Snowden's choice of Hong Kong, which has been the most puzzling detail of the whole story. If true, it explains a lot, not just about why he chose Hong Kong but also about his subsequent interview with the press there. Can HNers who know Hong Kong shed light on how plausible it is?

It's striking how one obscure blog post can be more valuable than all the media speculation on this question (that I've seen) put together. That doesn't make its interpretation true, of course. But the alternate explanation that was going through my head seems a bit movie-esque by comparison.

CBS' Bob Schieffer on Snowden's junket:

  "For one thing, I don't remember Martin Luther King, Jr., 
  or Rosa Parks running off and hiding in China. The people 
  who ran the civil-rights movement were willing to break
  the law and suffer the consequences."

  "That's a little different than putting the nation's
  security at risk and running away."

  "What I see in Edward Snowden is just a narcissistic young
  man who has decided he is smarter than the rest of us"

   "I don't know what he is beyond that. But he is no hero.
   If he has a point — which I'm not sure he does — he
   would help his cause by voluntarily coming home to face
   the consequences."

Source:

Schieffer to Snowden: Come home, face the consequences

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IU5-r6mw6nQ

Fourth point about Hong Kong being under China probably has a significant effect that public cannot know about to full extent.

It's not a outright conspiracy to believe that there's a largely hidden but real power struggle between US and China. China probably likes the fact that Snowden has brought NSA and US government into public scrutiny and they are probably plotting a way to make the best out of it.

Useful to know how the enemy is arguing. Sure, the consequences are torture, imprisonment and death. But who wouldn't take those consequences to be a real hero?