According to Chasing Light, on Thursday, the 37th anniversary of June 4, the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation presented the “Human Rights Award for Dissidents” to exiled Hong Kong activist Xu Wing-ting, while also commemorating the victims of June 4. Xu said this was the first time a Hong Konger had received the award, calling it highly meaningful. “It shows that the international community continues to pay attention to Hong Kong. For Hong Kong’s democratic movement and the younger generation, we see hope,” she said.
In her acceptance speech, Xu said the award was not her personal honor. “This honor belongs to the students who stood up in Tiananmen Square in 1989, to Hong Kong protesters currently imprisoned, and to the two million Hong Kong people who once took to the streets for democracy.”
Xu said, “I am not braver than any of them, but it is precisely their courage that made me realize I am not alone. If there is any honor, it should belong to them first.” She said she was only standing there to help make their candlelight shine a little brighter. She noted that she was born ten years after the Tiananmen Massacre, but like many in her generation in Hong Kong, she inherited this memory, which also shaped them.
She also said she first learned about the Tiananmen Incident at the age of 10. Growing up, “June 4” was not a forbidden term for her. That year, she asked her parents to take her to the candlelight vigil in Victoria Park. She later realized that this “normality” was actually a privilege, and it also carried responsibility. She reflected that Hong Kong has changed today.
History has been erased
She said this history has been erased from public life, organizers of vigils have been prosecuted, like-minded people have been imprisoned, others have gone into exile, and she herself now lives under a bounty warrant. “Beijing believes that by blowing out the candlelight, it can extinguish memory itself, but it is wrong,” she said. She added that despite the risks, Hong Kong people still commemorate June 4 in their own ways. “This is the true meaning of ‘passing the torch’: passing the flame from one generation to the next—from those who can no longer speak, to those of us who still can.”
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Exile is not easy. When she thinks of Hong Kong, her family, and imprisoned friends, Xu often asks herself: is it useful? Is it worth it? However, people such as Chow Hang-tung, Lee Cheuk-yan, Jimmy Lai, and Joshua Wong—who show immense courage even while imprisoned—have taught her that even when facing arrest or imprisonment, one must still choose responsibility in the face of fear. “These responsibilities include speaking for those silenced by the Chinese Communist Party, defending those imprisoned for telling the truth, and passing the torch to the next generation.”
Xu emphasized that no bounty, intimidation, or threats against her or her loved ones can stop her from continuing to fight, “until Hong Kong regains freedom, until my friends regain freedom, and until no one is punished simply for remembering June 4.”
Public records show that Xu Wing-ting graduated from St. Mary’s Canossian College and Emerson College in Boston, majoring in journalism. She first gained attention during university after publishing an article titled “I Am From Hong Kong, Not China” in campus media. After Hong Kong implemented the National Security Law in 2020, Xu went into exile, becoming the first Hong Konger granted political asylum by the U.S. federal government. In 2023, Hong Kong police’s National Security Department issued a HK$1 million bounty for her arrest on charges of violating the National Security Law.
Xu Wing-ting continues to be pursued
lthough Xu is now in exile in the United States, the Hong Kong government continues to pursue her, including detaining and investigating her parents in Hong Kong. According to Radio Free Asia, her parents were taken away for questioning by national security police in 2023 and 2025. Xu responded in a Facebook post, saying she felt sorry that, as a daughter, she had caused her parents suffering. She said that as an “outspoken and rebellious daughter,” she chose to leave Hong Kong in order to give her parents peace of mind.
She said that since leaving Hong Kong, she has had no contact with her parents, and “even news of them being taken away was only known to me through messages from journalist friends.” She stated that “punishment should not extend to family members,” and asked, “How can a ruling power that claims to have a conscience treat two ordinary citizens who have lived honest lives and served society so diligently in this way?”
