It's pretty clear this was his plan from the get-go. Now we know why the U.S. was looking for him so hard. Revealing that the country is tracking its citizens

It's pretty clear this was his plan from the get-go. Now we know why the U.S. was looking for him so hard. Revealing that the country is tracking its citizens is one thing. Revealing covert cyber espionage secrets to a country the U.S. has a lot of tension with is something else. It appears the delay in releasing this information was to let him build up a good guy and hero image in the Western press first. "Hero selflessly outs nefarious government plot for the common good!" Then he goes and tells China about the U.S. infiltrating its systems, so that China will protect him. So much for the whole hero thing. The NSA didn't even have to roll out a tar-and-feather campaign. Snowden took care of it all by himself.