If he'd stood up for US citizens rather than US enemies he could have remained in the US and fought his corner in the courts and the press.
Source: I worked for an affiliated organization that was the victim of a large-scale, extremely sophisticated cyber attack from china.
This may come as news to you, but hacking is not an act of war. If it were, then the US has already committed an act of war against Iran with Stuxnet (which actually caused physical damage to equipment there), as well as having committed acts of war against the USSR on several occasions. Similarly, industrial espionage is not an act of war; again, the US does this all the time, even to our allies.
Personally I don't like this approach. I think it's better to try to improve the system from within. The US and the West is still the world's bastion of freedom and rights, regardless of the way things are portrayed on HN.
I don't think its an effective way of working, and if you have to flee to Russia, Cuba or Venezuela then it seems like the ends have lost sight of the means, but good luck to him.
And I very much doubt that was done to aid our "enemy," but to help galvanize Snowden's status in the eyes of the Chinese people, which would in turn weigh on the government's decision whether or not to cooperate with the USA's extradition request.
And it worked.
He would be convicted, he clearly violated the law. An unjust law perhaps, but a law nonetheless. He swore not to give Top Secret to anyone without a security clearance and he obviously did.
It's possible that one of the room service delivery people was a Chinese agent and made Snowden an offer he couldn't refuse: "USA has issued an arrest warrant....we may have to arrest you...but...what do you have for us? "
So. Is that not treason, pure and simple?
"Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort."
We are not at war with any country right now (at least in the sense that Congress has not declared war), Snowden is not participating in armed attacks on this country, and China is not our enemy in any meaningful sense of the word.
He could have remained in the US yes, in prison for the rest of his life.