Former Hong Kong independence group leader seeks asylum in Britain

[December 29, 2023]  By Kanishka Singh

(Reuters) - The former leader of a Hong Kong pro-independence group, who was sentenced in 2021 to prison under a national security law imposed by China, said on Thursday he had fled to Britain and formally applied for political asylum.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT

In November 2021, Tony Chung, who was then 20, was sentenced to 43 months in prison for trying to separate the city from China, and for money laundering. Chung was charged with secession under the sweeping national security law in 2020 and denied bail.

Beijing imposed the national security law on the Asian financial hub in 2020 after months of anti-government protests. The law punishes acts including subversion, secession, collusion with foreign forces, and extremism with up to life in prison.

KEY QUOTES

"In the past six months with no income from any work, the national security police officers kept on coercing and inducing me to join them," Chung said on Facebook on Thursday.

"From October onwards until the present day, I have intermittently fallen ill. During this period, I sought medical consultations from both Western and Chinese doctors, all of whom diagnosed my condition as a result of significant mental stress and psychological factors, leading to a weakened immune system," he added.

The trauma and continued surveillance made him leave Hong Kong, he said.

Chung also told the Washington Post he was made to take part in a compulsory "deradicalization" program in detention where guards said to those who had been detained that they were "manipulated" by the United States.

Independence activist Tony Chung is pictured in a street in Hong Kong, China January 8, 2019. Picture taken January 8, 2019. REUTERS/James Pomfret/File Photo

Chung said he was eventually released in June 2023. His time was reduced for good behavior, according to the Washington Post.

CONTEXT

Chung is the former leader of Hong Kong pro-independence group Studentlocalism that dissolved in 2020 before the security law came into effect.

Prosecutors had said at the time he was charged that he acted as an administrator for the Facebook pages of the U.S. branch of Studentlocalism and an organization called the Initiative Independence Party. They also said pro-independence T-shirts, flags and books were seized from his home.

Chung said on Facebook he plans to continue his studies, "hoping to contribute everything I can as a Hong Kong exile."

The former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997 with the promise of a high degree of autonomy. Democracy activists and some Western governments say China broke that promise, an allegation that Beijing denies.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by David Gregorio and Michael Perry)

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