Another well-known Hong Kong democracy activist has fled abroad: 22-year-old Tony Chung announced that he wants to apply for asylum in Great Britain. Constant monitoring made him sick.
A prominent pro-democracy activist from Hong Kong has fled to Britain. Tony Chung announced on Instagram that he wanted to apply for political asylum there. The 22-year-old was among the first to be sentenced in China’s special administrative region under a sweeping national security law passed after the 2019 democracy protests.
Tony Chung was sentenced to 43 months in prison for, among other things, separatism and money laundering. He was released from prison in the summer and has been under constant surveillance by authorities since then, Chung said.
He was asked to report regularly to the authorities and report where he had been, who he had met and what conversations he had had. The authorities offered to pay him for information about others to prove that he had reformed. Chung said he had to sign that he would not be allowed to disclose his conversations with authorities. That’s why he was unable to seek help from lawyers or tell anyone about his situation.
Exit via Japan
He had been feeling sick off and on since October. Western and Chinese doctors told him that his immune system was weakened because he was under great psychological stress. He later convinced law enforcement to allow him to travel to Okinawa, Japan, to process his feelings. During the trip, he said he sought help from organizations and people abroad.
He arrived in Britain from Japan on Wednesday to seek asylum. He will not be able to return to his homeland for the foreseeable future, but wants to continue to be involved in the democracy movement in Hong Kong from exile. “I believe that only if the people of Hong Kong do not give up will the seeds of freedom and democracy one day sprout again,” he said.
Activists under pressure since 2020
In 2019, there were months of protests in the former British colony – against the Hong Kong government and the Chinese state and party leadership. In the summer of 2020, the government in Beijing passed a law for the Chinese special administrative region.
The extremely vague security law can de facto criminalize anything that is directed against the Communist Party ruling in the People’s Republic. Activities that are viewed as subversive, separatist, terrorist or conspiratorial can be punished with life imprisonment. Human rights organizations criticize that the rule of law no longer exists in Hong Kong.
Tens of thousands of Hong Kongers live in exile
Many activists have now been convicted. The trial began last week against the best-known defendant under the security law, former publisher Jimmy Lai.
Tens of thousands of Hong Kongers now live abroad – many out of fear of the authorities. The activist Agnes Chow only left for Canada at the beginning of December.
With information from Benjamin Eyssel, ARD Studio Beijing
Benjamin Eyssel, ARD Beijing, tagesschau, December 29, 2023 10:57 a.m