Skip to main content
NEU job vacancy
Edward Snowden and the Hong Kong crisis
When the tell-all US spy fled to Hong Kong to expose the unprecedented illegal monitoring he had been party to, he also revealed that the Chinese territory itself was being targeted — no wonder Beijing is now closing these loopholes, writes KENNY COYLE

CAST your mind back to the summer of 2013, when a brave young American, Edward Snowden, was holed up in a Hong Kong hotel hounded by the US authorities for whistleblowing on the activities of the United States National Security Agency (NSA), where he had worked as a contractor.

Deciding that he had to expose what he considered to be the “criminal” nature of much of the NSA’s work, Snowden fled his home in Hawaii and made for Hong Kong, where he told his story and shared documents with a number of media outlets, including Britain’s Guardian.

The US charged Snowden with theft of US government property, unauthorised communication of national defence information and wilful communication of classified communications intelligence to an unauthorised person.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
China embassy demo
Features / 16 August 2025
16 August 2025

From anonymous surveys claiming Chinese students are spying on each other to a meltdown about the size of China’s London embassy, the evidence is everywhere that Britain is embracing full spectrum Sinophobia as the war clouds gather, writes CARLOS MARTINEZ

Duterte’s arrest: justice for the Filipino people won’t
Features / 17 March 2025
17 March 2025
While the West celebrates Duterte’s extradition, the selective application of international law reveals deeper geopolitical motives behind the prosecution of a leader from a poor, exploited nation, argues KENNY COYLE
SUBTLE REPRIMAND: Foreign Secretary David Lammy meets with F
Features / 4 December 2024
4 December 2024
Two recent high-level meetings between British and Chinese leaders have sparked controversy in the capitalist media but for all the wrong reasons, writes KENNY COYLE