This article is from the archive of our partner .

Edward Snowden went to great lengths to cover his tracks and avoid the long arm of U.S. law, but the NSA leaker's decision to choose Hong Kong as a potential safe haven may have been his biggest misstep. Snowden says he chose the city-state because of its "commitment to free speech and the right of political dissent," except its citizens also care very deeply about something else: the rule of the law. That's why one lawyer said that, with the possible exception of the U.K., "Hong Kong is the worst place in the world for any person to avoid extradition."

According to The Wall Street Journal's Chinese bureau reports, lawyers who live and work in Hong Kong's legal system are "baffled" that Snowden believes he could be safe there. Not only does the city have a working extradition treaty with the U.S., they've always done their best to honor it. Usually for violent criminals and drug offenders, but still: The city's experts say they can't recall instances in which the agreement has been challenged in political circumstances.

Hong Kong's citizens do value the right of protest greatly and have exercised it often when the Chinese mainland has threatened restrictions or censorship. (The photo at right was a memorial for the victims of Tiananmen Square last week. Such events are banned on the mainland.) However, those protests are as much about protecting Hong Kong's autonomy as they are about free speech. A lack of censorship is more than just a sign of openness and free expression; it's what separates Hong Kong from the more authoritarian forces in Beijing. That independence was fundamental to the agreement that returned the area from British colonial control at the end of the last century and what has it allowed it to become an international center for banking and business. If China can violate that whenever it wants, then nothing in Hong Kong is really free.