Hong Kong pro-democracy activists Tony Chung and Ted Hui revealed that they have been given asylum in the UK and Australia, respectively.
Convicted of breaking Hong Kong’s infamous 2020 National Security Law (NSL)— used by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to crack down on dissent—the two activists now join dozens of fellow activists who have escaped the city’s authorities.
Ted Hui, a former lawmaker who is now wanted by Hong Kong officials, announced that the Australian government had given him a protection visa, while also providing his family — his wife, children and parents — safe asylum in the country, the Guardian wrote. Hui has been working as a solicitor in Adelaide.
“I express my sincere gratitude to the government of Australia — both present and former — for recognizing our need for asylum and granting us this protection,” Hui said on Facebook on Aug. 16.
Hui was once a member of Hong Kong’s Legislative Council before he was convicted and tried in absentia. Though slapped with a sentence of around four years in jail in 2022, he was able to flee Hong Kong after being out on bail in 2020. Since then, the authorities have intimidated his relatives, frozen his assets and even placed a HK$1 million ($128,211) bounty for his capture.
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Hui’s office in Adelaide received an anonymous letter earlier this year, which offered his colleagues a $203,000 reward for information on his and his family’s location. False pamphlets were also mailed to Adelaide’s mosques, which framed Hui as “a pro-Israel lawyer” advocating conflict against Islamic extremism.
Calling on the Australian government to help other imprisoned Hong Kong activists, Hui also pledged that he and his family would “give back to Australia in every way we can — through our work, our civic engagement, and our commitment to the values of democracy and freedom.”
Safe in the UK
Meanwhile, Tony Chung — among the youngest people to be jailed under the national security law — revealed on Instagram on Aug. 17 that the UK had granted him asylum. Posting a photo of a letter from the UK Home Office, he said that he had been given “refugee status and five years of residency,” the Guardian reported.
”After waiting for over a year and a half, I can finally begin to try to start a new life,” Chung wrote. “My future holds so many possibilities, but this feeling, in turn, brings me fear – the fear of planning for the future.”
Since his arrest in 2020, Chung had suffered through depression among other mental issues. Upon his arrival in the UK in 2023, he had lamented that he had become “infamous, imprisoned, and exiled for no apparent reason.”
Chung was only a teenage student when he rallied a group advocating for an independent Hong Kong. He too was sentenced to around four years in jail before being released early for good behavior.
Speaking to Radio Free Asia (RFA) after arriving in the UK, he said that national security police attempted to hire him as an informant.
”They wanted me to confess, and prove to them that I had nothing to hide and that I wasn’t engaging in any further secessionist activities,” he said.
Chung was also placed on the bounty list with Hui, with letters sent to bribe his neighbors for HK$1 million.
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Still at risk
Beijing’s long arm reach continues to threaten those who have fled the country, with large bounties still on dozens of activists’ heads.
Even in Leeds, UK, Chloe Cheung, co-founder of the Hong Kongers group, was shocked to learn that a bounty had been placed on her, with Hong Kong officials labeling her a national security threat.
”I don’t expect to live a normal life, but compared with the people in prison back in Hong Kong, my sacrifice is nothing. I really want to see a free Hong Kong so if my public role can help the situation a little bit, it will be worthwhile,” she said.
On July 25, 19 more activists living abroad were targeted for bounties of HK$ 200,000 ($25,000) each.
”The investigation is still ongoing. If necessary, police will offer bounties to hunt down more suspects in the case,” Hong Kong police said.
Hong Kong’s government has not commented on the cases regarding Ted Hui and Tony Chung, but a spokesperson said that “any country that harbors Hong Kong criminals in any form shows contempt for the rule of law, grossly disrespects Hong Kong’s legal systems and barbarically interferes in the affairs of Hong Kong.”
