Edward Snowden, the self-proclaimed source of recently leaked top secret National Security Agency documents, ridiculed the speculation that he is a Chinese spy during a live chat on The Guardian’s website on Monday.
“Edward, there is rampant speculation, outpacing facts, that you have or will provide classified US information to the Chinese or other governments in exchange for asylum,” The Guardian’s Spencer Ackerman asked Snowden. “Have/will you?”
Snowden called this speculation a smear.
“This is a predictable smear that I anticipated before going public, as the US media has a knee-jerk “RED CHINA!” reaction to anything involving HK or the PRC, and is intended to distract from the issue of US government misconduct,” Snowden wrote. “Ask yourself: if I were a Chinese spy, why wouldn’t I have flown directly into Beijing? I could be living in a palace petting a phoenix by now.”
