Perhaps more appropriate was this cartoon by Harry Harrison in Hong Kong's English-languge South China Morning Post:

That cartoon ran on June 3, and it's actually in reference to a story in The Washington Post — the one that reported Chinese hackers had stolen and compromised sophisticated U.S. weapons designs. That was also in anticipation of the Obama-Xi summit. And it ran before all of the NSA stuff went down. That's when things got interesting....

Chinese State-Run Papers Are Not Treating This Like a Big Deal

While the Hong Kong-based press is big on its big new story, the mainland, well, not so much. If you look at The People's Daily's stories concerning the United States that ran yesterday and today, you'll notice a surprising Snowden shortfall — perhaps due to the abundance of updates on the Obama meetings:

And if you head over to Xinhua, a state-run paper, you'll notice that there's no mention of Snowden in the top 10 stories on the site's front page. There's not even really a Xinhua report to be had on Snowden — there's something on the NSA as a "spy agency" categorized as a video report. In that category, which isn't advertised on Xinhua's front page, it's at least the top story (pictured at right). Whether that's a conscious news/propaganda decision to order to avoid sparking a conversation that might come back to China — well, it's hard to tell, and it's still a bit early in the news cycle. But remember this is the United States and digital intelligence and, the Chinese government has accused the U.S. of hacking its sites, and this Snowden thing is the biggest hacking leak story in U.S. history, apparently, so you'd think China's papers wouldn't shy away from the opportunity to make this a bigger deal.

In Hong Kong, There Aren't Any Clear Answers if Snowden Will Be Extradited

Papers in Hong Kong are just as interested as people in the U.S. in figuring out if Snowden can stay in the region. But the answers abroad aren't any clearer than they are here. Resident Atlantic China guru James Fallows writes: "if Snowden thinks, as some of his comments seem to suggest, that he has found a bastion of freer speech, then he is ill-informed; and if he knowingly chose to make his case from China he is playing a more complicated game."

As our Dashiell Bennett pointed out, Snowden's decision to go to Hong Kong may have been a mistake from an extradition standpoint. But papers in Hong Kong are still trying to figure out if there are any loopholes. Ming Pao, a Chinese-language paper, has found one of those loopholes, and it involves getting the United Nations involved. Via Google Translate:

James explained that Hong Kong should not be given political asylum, but any person in Hong Kong may apply for political refugee status with United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees ... the Government will not deport people who are awaiting approval...

Yes, that's a pretty rough translation. But it does line up with analysis from The Guardian, which was the home of Snowden's leaks and which notes that he is guaranteed to have some kind of legal process: "While the UNHCR can still make decisions on cases, the March ruling means that those who are rejected have the right to have their case considered by Hong Kong officials."