Wall Street Journal said that Chinese Internet users, some of the world’s most experienced victims of state surveillance, hailed the man responsible for exposing U.S. government data-gathering programs as a hero, but were less sure how to respond to news that he was camping out on their doorstep.

“Won’t the American people say he doesn’t love his country?” asked a user of Sina Corp.’s Twitter-like Weibo microblogging service.

“So does this mean he’s planning to sell technology to the Chinese government?” wrote another.

“This is the definition of heroism,” wrote one particularly enthusiastic microblogger. “Doing this proves he genuinely cares about this country and about his country’s citizens. All countries need someone like him!”

Edward Snowden, a U.S. government contractor, identified himself as the source of recent disclosures about secret National Security Agency data-gathering programs. Mr. Snowdenhas picked Hong Kong as a refuge.