Anyone with even a vague understanding of Intelligence understands full well that he didn't randomly come out in China. This is a major diplomatic minefield in a country that is known for putting bullets in prisoners heads to sell the organs on the open market. He did not do it without the complicity of the Chinese security services and government - at least in being assured that they would not detain him or turn him over. It's also not unrealistic to suspect he was compensated by the Chinese - when you look at the timing and the fact that Obama had been attacking China for their cyber attacks, stealing secrets etc. This was a big win for China. Think about this, about who he is... a low level contractor is accessible to foreign agents. An NSA / CIA employee... not so much. A low level contractor, easy to find. Easy to access. Easy to befriend. Easy to negotiate some terms.
China did it for political currency and to fire a shot. He had high level US intel on his person. There is can be little question as to whether or not it was also given to China. The US pressed China to turn him over - China fired back a safe, diplomatic response and in that time, he split. China is off the hook and accomplished a great deal with that little spectacle. And now he's in Russia. Russia never misses a chance to take the opposite side of the US and they too, are using him for political gain.
One thing that stood out to me as he was giving interviews from China was his exaggeration - that he could spy on the president if he wanted to and so on. A lot of that stuff seemed scripted by the Chinese to me. They couldn't have asked for a better show.
At the end of the day, what is fact is that this guy stole a bunch of data from the NSA, then went to a foreign, unfriendly country to share it with the world. His life is over no matter what. He will be in prison for the rest of his life as this can NEVER be tolerated by ANY government. Debating the law and changing the laws is a secondary issue to what he has done which is quite severe in ANY nation..
Hero?
Not so much.
What is the cause? What is the message? What is the solution? What is surprising about the NSA being able to access phone records to see what phones called what phones? He will always be remembered as "that guy who..." because there is no message or course of action attached to it that people can identify with and get behind. Of course, this won't stop him from getting a Nobel Prize.. Obama got one for no reason at all, terrorists get them etc.