Edward Snowden's choice of Hong Kong as a haven from where to leak intelligence documents and to unmask himself as a whistleblower rests on calculations on the territory's press freedom safeguards and its extradition treaty with the US. It is a high-stakes gamble. 
 
 Just before sovereignty over Hong Kong passed from Britain to China in 1997, the US signed a new extradition treaty with the semi-autonomous territory. Under that treaty, both parties agree to hand over fugitives from each other's criminal justice systems, but either side has the right of refusal in the case of political offences. 
 
 Beijing, which gave its consent for Hong Kong to sign the agreement, also has a right of veto if it believes the surrender of a fugitive would harm the "defence, foreign affairs or essential public interest or policy'' of the People's Republic of China. In short, the treaty makes Snowden's fate a matter of political expediency not just in Hong Kong but in Beijing. 
 
 In his Guardian interview, Snowden denied that his decision to fly to Hong Kong to make his allegations on NSA intrusion and infringement of American civil liberties was intended as a vote of confidence in Chinese human rights. But he noted that the people of Hong Kong have "a spirited commitment to free speech and the right of political dissent". 
 
 Certainly in comparison with mainland China, Hong Kong is an island of press freedom and political tolerance. When the UK ended 156 years of colonial rule and Hong Kong became China's first 'special administrative region', it was given special status under the principle of "one country, two systems". Most importantly, Hong Kong has its own constitution, its Basic Law, giving it a "high degree of autonomy" on all issues except foreign relations and defence. 
 
 The territory has multi-party politics but its chief executive is chosen by an election committee of just a few hundred electors. The freedom of the Hong Kong press, meanwhile, is being continually put to the test. When the government attempted in 2003 to impose restrictions on the grounds of sedition and national security, half a million people came out to demonstrate and the bill was withdrawn. 
 
 The tradition of commemorating the 1989 killing of Tiananmen Square demonstrators – banned in the rest of China – is vigorously upheld in Hong Kong. Attendance at a memorial ceremony in the territory's Victoria Park last week was estimated at between 54,000 and 150,000, despite torrential rain. 
 
 The combination of a comparatively liberal civic culture and the sovereignty of Beijing, America's great Pacific rival with which it has an often testy relationship, seems to have been a factor in Snowden's choice of Hong Kong. It may play to his advantage that Presidents Barack Obama and Xi Jinping reportedly agreed to differ on cybersecurity issues in their weekend summit in California. Against this background, Snowden's extradition might be seen in the party leadership in Beijing as a capitulation. But such calculations can change. 
 
 "Call me naive but I think this is going to come down to how Beijing wants to play this," Josh Marshall argued on his Talking Points Memo blog. "If they don't want a fight over this, Snowden's toast. If they like the optics of it, I don't think it matters what that extradition treaty says. China's a big enough player and the US has enough other fish to fry with the Chinese, that the US is not going to put the bilateral relationship on the line over this guy." 
 
 • This article was amended on 28 June 2013 to amend a reference to Hong Kong passing its own Basic Law. ||||| U.S. defense contractor Edward Snowden discusses his motivation behind the NSA leak and why he revealed himself as the whistleblower behind the major story. Courtesy of Laura Poitras and Glenn Greenwald. (Nicki Demarco/Courtesy of Laura Poitras and Glenn Greenwald) 
 
 U.S. defense contractor Edward Snowden discusses his motivation behind the NSA leak and why he revealed himself as the whistleblower behind the major story. Courtesy of Laura Poitras and Glenn Greenwald. (Nicki Demarco/Courtesy of Laura Poitras and Glenn Greenwald) 
 
 Federal prosecutors have filed a criminal complaint against Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who leaked a trove of documents about top-secret surveillance programs, and the United States has asked Hong Kong to detain him on a provisional arrest warrant, according to U.S. officials. 
 
 Snowden was charged with theft, “unauthorized communication of national defense information” and “willful communication of classified communications intelligence information to an unauthorized person,” according to the complaint. The last two charges were brought under the 1917 Espionage Act. 
 
 The complaint, which initially was sealed, was filed in the Eastern District of Virginia, a jurisdiction where Snowden’s former employer, Booz Allen Hamilton, is headquartered and a district with a long track record of prosecuting cases with national security implications. After The Washington Post reported the charges, senior administration officials said late Friday that the Justice Department was barraged with calls from lawmakers and reporters and decided to unseal the criminal complaint. 
 
 A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment. 
 
 Snowden flew to Hong Kong last month after leaving his job at an NSA facility in Hawaii with a collection of highly classified documents that he acquired while working at the agency as a systems analyst. 
 
 1 of 11 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × Famous leaks in American history View Photos Ten famous leaks in American history — and leakers from Ben Franklin to Edward Snowden. Caption Eleven famous leaks in American history — and leakers from Ben Franklin to Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden. 1. Bradley Manning On July 30, Army Pfc. Manning was acquitted of aiding the enemy but convicted of most of the more than 20 crimes he was charged with for passing more than 700,000 government and military files to the anti-secrecy Web site WikiLeaks. The material included sensitive diplomatic cables and videos of airstrikes that killed civilians. Read the article. Cliff Owen/AP Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue. 
 
 The documents, some of which have been published in The Post and Britain’s Guardian newspaper, detailed some of the most- 
 
 secret surveillance operations undertaken by the United States and Britain, as well as classified legal memos and court orders underpinning the programs in the United States. 
 
 The 30-year-old intelligence analyst revealed himself June 9 as the leaker in an interview with the Guardian and said he went to Hong Kong because it provided the “cultural and legal framework to allow me to work without being immediately detained.” 
 
 Snowden subsequently disappeared from public view; it is thought that he is still in the Chinese territory. Hong Kong has its own legislative and legal systems but ultimately answers to Beijing, under the “one country, two systems” arrangement. 
 
 The leaks have sparked national and international debates about the secret powers of the NSA to infringe on the privacy of Americans and foreigners. Officials from President Obama on down have said they welcome the opportunity to explain the importance of the programs and the safeguards they say are built into them. Skeptics, including some in Congress, have said the NSA has assumed the power to soak up data about Americans that was never intended under the law. 
 
 There was never any doubt that the Justice Department would seek to prosecute Snowden for one of the most significant national security leaks in the country’s history. The Obama administration has shown a particular propensity to go after leakers and has launched more investigations than any previous administration. This White House is responsible for bringing six of the nine total indictments ever brought under the 1917 Espionage Act. Snowden will be the seventh individual when he is formally indicted. 
 
 Justice Department officials had already said that a criminal investigation of Snowden was underway and was being run out of the FBI’s Washington field office in conjunction with lawyers from the department’s National Security Division. 
 
 By filing a criminal complaint, prosecutors have a legal basis to make the detention request of the authorities in Hong Kong. Prosecutors now have 60 days to file an indictment, probably under seal, and can then move to have Snowden extradited from Hong Kong for trial in the United States. 
 
 Snowden, however, can fight the extradition effort in the courts in Hong Kong. Any battle is likely to reach Hong Kong’s highest court and could last many months, lawyers in the United States and Hong Kong said. 
 
 The United States has an extradition treaty with Hong Kong, and U.S. officials said cooperation with the Chinese territory, which enjoys some autonomy from Beijing, has been good in previous cases. 
 
 The treaty, however, has an exception for political offenses, and espionage has traditionally been treated as a political offense. Snowden’s defense team in Hong Kong is likely to invoke part of the extradition treaty with the United States, which states that suspects will not be turned over to face criminal trial for offenses of a “political character.” 
 
 Typically in such cases, Hong Kong’s chief executive must first decide whether to issue a warrant for the accused’s arrest. But the extradition treaty also says that in exceptional cases a provisional warrant can be issued by a Hong Kong judge without the chief executive’s approval. The judge must give the chief executive notice, however, that he has issued the warrant. 
 
 A spokesperson at the office of Hong Kong chief executive Leung Chun-ying said there was no information on Snowden’s case. The police department did not respond to calls or e-mails. At the police station for Central District in Hong Kong Island, police officers on duty said they had not heard anything about Snowden. 
 
 If Snowden is arrested, he would appear before a judge. Bail would be unlikely and, instead, Snowden would be sent to the Lai Chi Kok maximum-security facility in Kowloon, a short drive from the high-end Mira Hotel, where he is last known to have stayed in Hong Kong. 
 
 Snowden could also remain in Hong Kong if the Chinese government decides that it is not in the defense or foreign policy interests of the government in Beijing to have him sent back to the United States for trial. 
 
 Another option would be for Snowden to apply for asylum with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, which handles most asylum requests in Hong Kong. The UNHCR was closed Saturday morning and did not immediately respond to requests for comment via e-mail and phone. The asylum application process can take months or even years because Hong Kong has a severe backlog. The Hong Kong government cannot formally surrender individuals until their asylum applications have been processed. 
 
 Snowden also could attempt to reach another jurisdiction and seek asylum there before the authorities in Hong Kong act. 
 
 Jia Lynn Yang in Hong Kong contributed to this report. ||||| Any attempt by the US to extradite the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden from Hong Kong for espionage could take years and be blocked by China, legal experts have said. 
 
 The warning comes after it emerged on Friday that the US has charged Snowden with theft of government property, unauthorised communication of national defence information and wilful communication of classified communications intelligence to an unauthorised person. The latter two charges are part of the US Espionage Act. 
 
 Legislators in Hong Kong responded by calling for mainland China to intervene in the case. Snowden, 29, who is reportedly in hiding in Hong Kong, was last seen on 10 June. He is understood to have made contact with human rights lawyers in anticipation of a legal action from the US. 
 
 The US and Hong Kong have had an extradition treaty since 1998, a year after Hong Kong was transferred from British to Chinese rule. Scores of Americans have been sent back for trial under the treaty. 
 
 While espionage and theft of state secrets are not cited specifically in the treaty, equivalent charges could be pressed against Snowden under Hong Kong's official secrets ordinance, legal experts said. 
 
 The timeframe for such proceedings remains unclear, but Hectar Pun, a barrister with human rights expertise, said such an extradition could take three to five years. 
 
 If Hong Kong authorities did not charge Snowden with an equivalent crime, authorities could not extradite him, lawyers said. In the absence of charges, Snowden was also theoretically free to leave the city, one legal expert said. 
 
 Simon Young, a law professor at the University of Hong Kong, said that while the first charge involving theft might readily find equivalence in Hong Kong, the latter two spying offences will likely attract "litigation and dispute" in the courts. 
 
 Under Hong Kong's extradition system, a request first goes through diplomatic channels to the government, who decides whether to issue an "authority to proceed". If granted, a magistrate issues a formal warrant for the arrest of Snowden. 
 
 Once brought before the court, the judge would decide whether there was sufficient evidence to commit Snowden to trial or dismiss the case, though any decision could be appealed in a higher court. 
 
 Snowden could claim political asylum in Hong Kong, arguing he would face torture back home. Article six of the treaty states extradition should be refused for "an offence of a political character". 
 
 "The unfairness of his trial at home and his likely treatment in custody" were important factors to consider when assessing Snowden's chances of claiming political immunity from extradition, said Young. 
 
 Should a Hong Kong court eventually call for Snowden's extradition, Hong Kong's leader and China could still veto the decision on national security or defence grounds. 
 
 Snowden has admitted leaking secrets about classified US surveillance programmes, which he said he did in the public interest. Supporters say he is a whistleblower, while critics call him a criminal and perhaps even a traitor.
– While Hong Kong is undoubtedly a more pleasant place to spend time than an Ecuadorian embassy—let alone a US prison—analysts are baffled by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden's decision to take refuge there, as are lawmakers in the largely self-governing Chinese territory. Hong Kong has an extradition treaty with the US, though Beijing maintains the right of veto over it, notes the Guardian, calling Snowden's move a "high-stakes gamble" that makes his fate "a matter of political expediency." What's more, CNN adds that hotel costs will soon max out Snowden's limited funds. (And then there's the stir-crazy factor; he has apparently left his room just three times in the last three weeks.) Snowden—who admits he doesn't expect to see home again—says he chose Hong Kong because they "have a spirited commitment to free speech and the right of political dissent," though his first choice for asylum would be Iceland, CNN reports. Some Hong Kong politicians say the territory's history of working closely with the US makes it a poor choice for Snowden—though others say they are "flattered." A criminal investigation into the leak has begun and the US is expected to begin extradition proceedings soon; a long legal battle in Hong Kong could ensue before Beijing decides on using its veto, the Wall Street Journal reports. In the meantime, Snowden has gotten his very own White House petition, with some 8,734 people, at the time of this writing, requesting "a full, free, and absolute pardon" for the "national hero."