[Diogenesis]

from 2013:

Exclusive: Edward Snowden’s father suggests son’s leaks may be protected by Constitution
"Lon Snowden’s anguish over his son, Edward Snowden,
is turning into something else he didn’t expect:
disillusion with a government he once proudly served.

“I’m an American citizen who has lost faith in many of
the leaders on both sides of the political aisle,”
Mr. Snowden said during an interview with The Washington Times.

A decorated Coast Guard officer, the elder Mr. Snowden
says he, like his son, once “walked the halls of the
National Security Agency.” He is disappointed with
his son’s betrayal of his oath of secrecy as an NSA contractor
and concerned that his son may spend life in prison.

Edward Snowden was a U.S. intelligence officer with a
top-secret clearance when he worked for five years
at Dell Computers in its Washington, D.C., offices.
He was handling top-secret data at the Hawaii offices
of another government contractor, Booz Allen Hamilton,
when he made off with top-secret evidence of the U.S. government’s
gathering and storing of data on the private phone calls
and Internet contacts of hundreds of millions of Americans
through programs such as Prism."

[Cboldt]

All outward signs are Snowden has a link with China. Outing the fact that China is involved would have all sorts of ramifications, from trade to election meddling and everything in between.

Could also be a point-man into a CIA cabal that pulled NK and who knows what other strings.

I think the only reasonable assumption is that things are not what they appear to be, and are definitely not what the MSM reports them to be.