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Hong Kong Pro Democracy activists receive asylum in Australia and Great Britain
Honggogers Pro-Democratic activists receive asylum in Australia and Great Britain. The erosion of civil rights since the 2020 Security Act raises questions.
Hong Kong Pro Democracy activists receive asylum in Australia and Great Britain
A Hong Kong Pro-Democratic activist and a former MP who are sought by the city's authorities have received asylum in Great Britain and Australia. Tony Chung, an activist who was detained by Hong Kong under the wide-ranging National Security Act, as well as Ted Hui, a former MP, who had to answer to court for his role in the 2019 anti-government protests, announced on the weekend that they have been preserved in the countries in which they now live.
Background of the asylum grant
Both activists are part of a group of dozens of activists who flee to the authorities in Hong Kong. Civil rights in the city have been significantly restricted since Beijing in 2020 introduced a National Security Act, which is essentially criminalized. Both the government in Beijing and the Hong Kong have praised the security law as a measure to stabilize the financial center.
Activities and persecution
Hui, who left Hong Kong in December 2020, belongs to a group of activists living abroad, against which police bonuses of up to $ 1 million (approx. $ 127,800) are exposed to. The former MP is now working as a lawyer in Adelaide and announced on Saturday on Facebook that he and his family received a patron visa.
"I express my sincere gratitude towards the government of Australia - both the current and the alumni - that it recognized our need for asylum and granted us this protection," wrote Hui. "This decision reflects values such as freedom, justice and compassion that my family will never take for granted."
Political activities in Hong Kong
During his time in Hong Kong, Hui was a decisive advocate of democracy and known to have disturbed a meeting of the Legislative Council by throwing a withered plant into the meeting room to a debate about the controversial National anthem law to stop, which punished the insult of the Chinese national anthem. For this campaign, he was punished with $ 52,000 Hong Kong $ (approx. $ 6,600).
Chung escape and asylum in Great Britain
Chung, who advocated the independence of Hong Kong, was sentenced to almost four years in prison for secession and money laundering in 2020. After a suspended sentence, he travels to Japan, from where he fled to Great Britain to apply for asylum. In a contribution on the social media platform Threads, he expressed his joy on Sunday about the preservation of refugee status in Great Britain and a five-year residence permit. Despite the challenges of recent years, including persistent psychological problems, he remains committed to his activism work.
Government reactions
The British and Australian authorities initially did not comment on the status of the activists. The Hong Kong government did not comment on the cases directly, but gave a statement on Saturday in which it condemned "the support of criminals in any country".
"Every country that supports Hong Kong criminals in any form shows contempt for the rule of law, roughly respects Hong Kong's legal systems and interferes barbarically into Hong Kong's affairs," said the explanation.