test_eps_small.csv

filename,text
IMAGES-005-HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_020367.txt,"215

The final choice he was made to board a non-stop flight to Moscow on June 23, 2013.
To remain in Hong Kong once a criminal complaint was leveled against him would have meant
that, at the very minimum, Hong Kong authorities would seize him and the alleged stolen property
of the US government in his possession. Even if he was released on bail, the Hong Kong
authorities would almost certainly retain all the NSA and GCHQ files he had gone to such lengths
to steal. He also would not be allowed to leave Hong Kong and possibly denied any access to the
Internet. As he demonstrated by his subsequent actions, this option was not acceptable to him.

Once the U.S. criminal complaint was unsealed on June 21, 2013, which became all but
inevitable after his video, his only route out of Hong Kong went through two adversaries of the
United States, China and Russia. China, as far as is known, did not offer him sanctuary.
According to one U.S diplomat, it may have already obtained copies of Snowden’s NSA files, and
did not want the problem of having Snowden defect to Beijing. In any case, if it had not already
acquired the files. It could assume it would receive that intelligence data from its Russian ally in
the intelligence war. Whatever its reason, China did not use its considerable power in Hong
Kong to block Snowden’s exit.