Why China Let Edward Snowden Go

Edward Snowden evolved from a tourist to a fugitive to an icon, and, finally, an irritant. And, in the end, the governments with the power to decide his fate—Hong Kong and Beijing—faced a choice: the short-term pain of defying a U.S. request for cooperation, or the long-term anguish of sheltering a man whose biography had become a symbol in China and abroad.