{"id":353830,"date":"2025-08-18T09:23:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T09:23:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/353830\/"},"modified":"2025-08-18T09:23:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T09:23:14","slug":"hong-kong-pro-democracy-activists-granted-asylum-in-australia-and-britain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/353830\/","title":{"rendered":"Hong Kong pro-democracy activists granted asylum in Australia and Britain"},"content":{"rendered":"

Your support helps us to tell the story<\/p>\n

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.<\/p>\n

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.<\/p>\n

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.<\/p>\n

Your support makes all the difference.<\/strong>Read more<\/p>\n

A Hong Kong<\/a> pro-democracy activist and a former lawmaker who are wanted by the city\u2019s authorities have been granted asylum in Great Britain<\/a> and Australia<\/a>, respectively.<\/p>\n

Tony Chung, an activist who was imprisoned under Hong Kong\u2019s sweeping national security law, and Ted Hui<\/a>, a former lawmaker who was facing trial for his role in anti-government protests in 2019, both announced over the weekend that they have received asylum in the countries where they now live.<\/p>\n

They are among dozens of activists on the run from Hong Kong authorities. Civil liberties in the city have been greatly eroded since Beijing in 2020 imposed a national security law essentially criminalizing dissent in the former British colony. Both Beijing and Hong Kong have hailed the security law as bringing stability to the financial hub.<\/p>\n

Hui, who fled Hong Kong in December 2020, is part of a group of overseas activists who are targeted by police bounties of up to 1 million Hong Kong dollars ($127,800). The former lawmaker is now working as a lawyer in Adelaide.<\/p>\n

He announced on Facebook on Saturday that he and his family have been granted protection visas.<\/p>\n

\u201cI express my sincere gratitude to the Government of Australia \u2014 both present and former \u2014 for recognising our need for asylum and granting us this protection,\u201d Hui wrote. \u201cThis decision reflects values of freedom, justice, and compassion that my family will never take for granted.\u201d<\/p>\n

While in Hong Kong, Hui had been an outspoken pro-democracy lawmaker. He was also known for disrupting a legislative session after he threw a rotten plant in the chamber to stop a debate of the national anthem bill \u2014 controversial legislation making it illegal to insult the Chinese national anthem. He was subsequently fined 52,000 Hong Kong dollars ($6,600) for the act.<\/p>\n

Chung, who had advocated for Hong Kong\u2019s independence, was sentenced to almost four years in prison for secession and money laundering in 2020. He was released on a supervision order, during which he traveled to Japan, from where he fled to Britain seeking asylum.<\/p>\n

In a post on social media platform Threads on Sunday, he expressed his excitement at receiving refugee status in Britain along with a five-year resident permit. He said that despite his challenges over the past few years, including persistent mental health problems, he remains committed to his activism.<\/p>\n

British and Australian authorities didn\u2019t immediately comment on the activists\u2019 statuses.<\/p>\n

Hong Kong\u2019s government did not comment directly on the cases but issued a statement on Saturday condemning \u201cthe harbouring of criminals in any form by any country.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAny country that harbours Hong Kong criminals in any form shows contempt for the rule of law, grossly disrespects Hong Kong\u2019s legal systems and barbarically interferes in the affairs of Hong Kong,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":353831,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5018,3,4],"tags":[748,393,4884,1144,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-353830","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"category-uk","9":"category-united-kingdom","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-northern-ireland","14":"tag-scotland","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115049044589381595","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}