[lern_too_spel]

He "published" that data by specifically leaking it to a Chinese newspaper. He was seeking asylum in Hong Kong at the time. Of course, Beijing did not want a prolonged diplomatic tussle with the US, so they could not let him stay. Their choices were to extradite to the US or to let him go somewhere else, and both options make it not their problem, so they let him (forced him to) go. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/10/hong-kong-edwa...

[jascii]

Yes published. the link you posted is a link to a publication. I am not sure what you are trying to insinuate with the rhetorical quotation marks.. The fact that it is a Chinese newspaper that publishes it seem logical, it is after all information of interest to the Chinese population. (I imagine a US paper's response being something like "NSA spies on China? Duh, that's their job..")

[lern_too_spel]

What legitimate reason is there for an American citizen to tell a Chinese newspaper about Chinese computer systems US intelligence agencies have compromised? Is it fine to leak information about CIA-compromised Russian systems as long as I leak it to Pravda and not the NYT or directly to GRU? Your distinction has no practical use.

Also, "published" because Snowden didn't publish anything. He showed documents to SCMP, which publishes a newspaper.