{"id":79450,"date":"2025-08-19T08:24:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T08:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/79450\/"},"modified":"2025-08-19T08:24:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T08:24:09","slug":"hong-kong-summons-uk-australia-envoys-after-activists-granted-asylum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/79450\/","title":{"rendered":"Hong Kong summons UK, Australia envoys after activists granted asylum"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"GettyGetty Images<\/p>\n

Tony Chung, who founded a pro-independence student group, has been granted asylum in the UK<\/p>\n

Two pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong have been granted asylum separately in the UK and Australia, prompting anger from the Chinese special administrative region’s government.<\/p>\n

Hong Kong summoned the Australian and British envoys, who were warned by Chief Secretary Chan Kwok-ki against “harbouring offenders”.<\/p>\n

Former lawmaker Ted Hui and student leader Tony Chung announced over the weekend that have been granted asylum in Australia and the UK, respectively.<\/p>\n

They were sentenced to jail under a national security law that Beijing says is necessary to maintain stability in the city. However, critics say the law is being used to crush dissent and instill a climate of fear.<\/p>\n

Hui fled Hong Kong in December 2020 while facing charges for his involvement in anti-government protests the year before. Chung left in 2023<\/a> citing an “enormous amount of stress” from constant police scrutiny.<\/p>\n

Arrests in Hong Kong are “based on facts and evidence” and “has nothing to do with the political stance”, the city’s government said in a statement on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of activists in Hong Kong have been arrested and charged since the sweeping national security legislation<\/a> came into force in 2020, one year after widespread pro-democracy protests.<\/p>\n

Hui said on Saturday that he and his family secured protection visas. The 43-year-old, who lives with his wife, children and parents in Adelaide, said they were forced “to leave a homeland we love and where our most precious memories remain”.<\/p>\n

\"GettyGetty Images<\/p>\n

Ted Hui (in gray pants) and his family have been granted protection visas by Australia<\/p>\n

Hui, an outspoken former lawmaker, is remembered for throwing rotten plants<\/a> on the floor of Hong Kong’s Legislative Council chamber in 2020 to protest the national security law \u2013 he said it symbolised the decay of Hong Kong’s political system.<\/p>\n

Chung announced on Sunday that he had received refugee status in the UK with a five-year residence permit.<\/p>\n

His announcement on social media was accompanied by a letter from the UK Home Office which read: “We accept you have a well-founded fear of persecution and therefore cannot return to your country.”<\/p>\n

“After waiting for over a year and a half, I can finally begin to try to start a new life,” the 24-year-old wrote.<\/p>\n

In 2023, Chung was convicted under the national security law of calling for Hong Kong’s secession. <\/p>\n

The UK had in July condemned Hong Kong authorities for dangling cash offers for people who help in the arrest of pro-democracy activists living in Britain, calling the move as “another example of transnational repression<\/a>“.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Images Tony Chung, who founded a pro-independence student group, has been granted asylum in the UK Two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":79451,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-79450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}