Bringing this poorly-informed comment back in order to ask:

on which Murdoch-owned garbage network did you hear that?

“Hong Kong” is not “China”, and if it subjectively is now, was less so at the time.

He was aiming for Ecuador, or similar.

It’s really mostly a matter of politics (and a bit of luck) that he didn’t get scooped up in HK for one intent or another.

https://www.reuters.com/article/world/china-persuaded-snowde...