All the press and comments assume his ultimate goal is to avoid extradition, which has not been requested so far. I think he know the consequence of his action very well. He wants to expose the government surveillance program and draw public outrage. If US government do request for extradition, this will go through the court system in Hong Kong. Hopefully it will be a fairly transparent system and give him another chance to raise the awareness of this program. He might end up in jail, but this would fulfill his goal, that is to expose the surveillance program to the greatest extend possible.
Hong Kong Baffled by Snowden’s Hideout
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Re: Hong Kong Baffled by Snowden’s Hideout
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
HK != China. How many times should we do this?
China can veto any extradition. HK and US have a mutual extradition treaty for actions that are illegal in both countries. Presumably leaking state secrets is illegal in HK. Furthermore, HK is quite willing to extradite to US and does so on regular basis. So the question of why China (or HK if you prefer), remains.
I think it's been answered here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5853901
Hong Kong currently has a moratorium on extradition of asylum seekers.
Re: Hong Kong Baffled by Snowden’s Hideout
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
Protection, balanced with plausible deniability.
Once you're protected, there's no more need for denying.
I mean deniability for the Chinese : Hong Kong is independent enough that they can claim powerlessness to their American partners, but they are the elephant in the room and can ensure that they keep actual control of the situation.