Where Are Hong Kong’s Leading Pro-Democracy Figures Now?

In 2019, Hong Kong erupted into probably the most beautiful expression of public anger with Beijing in a long time. Protesters broke into the legislature and vandalized it. They purchased full-page commercials in worldwide newspapers, criticizing the federal government. Lawmakers hurled unsavory objects in conferences to protest unpopular payments.

Within the years since then, China has waged an expansive crackdown on Hong Kong to crush the opposition. Beijing immediately imposed a nationwide safety regulation on the town in 2020 that gave the authorities a strong device to spherical up critics, together with a outstanding pro-democracy media tycoon.

So when Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing lawmakers handed a brand new safety regulation on Tuesday that expanded the authorities’ energy much more, the vote was just about unopposed. Probably the most vocal pro-democracy activists and lawmakers are actually both in jail or self-imposed exile.

Chow Dangle Tung was a human rights lawyer representing different activists on trial for nationwide safety offenses, till she herself was arrested in 2021.

Now, she says, she had no different choice however to “change into a columnist,” writing open letters from jail, that are then posted on-line by her pals. She has additionally filed a number of authorized appeals, writing statements to the court docket by hand as a result of she had no entry to a pc or the web.

Not too long ago, Ms. Chow has taken purpose at Hong Kong’s new safety laws, saying that officers had been making an attempt accountable the turbulence it had skilled on bizarre individuals and imprecise “international forces.”

She faces a number of expenses, together with some beneath the 2020 nationwide safety regulation, associated to her position in organizing a candlelight vigil commemorating victims of the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown in Beijing.

Being in jail has not stopped her from making an attempt to talk out. Ms. Chow has tried to make use of her many court docket appearances as platforms from which to criticize Beijing, together with over its longstanding repression of the Tiananmen Moms, a bunch representing victims of the bloodbath.

Ted Hui was recognized for being a confrontational lawmaker.

In 2020, he hurled a foul-smelling rotting plant onto the ground of the legislative chamber to protest a invoice making it against the law to disrespect the Chinese language anthem. At avenue rallies, he used his megaphone to warn riot police to not damage protesters; one officer responded by firing pepper spray into Mr. Hui’s eyes.

Mr. Hui was arrested in 2020 and accused of illegal meeting and different expenses. He managed to flee to Copenhagen with the assistance of two Danish politicians, and was later joined by his household.

At first, the authorities froze his household’s financial institution accounts. However they later backed down due to an outcry, and Mr. Hui was in a position to recuperate his household’s financial savings.

Mr. Hui is considered one of round a dozen high-profile pro-democracy activists whom the authorities regard as “absconders.” The brand new safety regulation now prohibits any try to assist “absconders” entry their belongings or property.

“Hong Kongers ought to be ready to count on that what has occurred to me may change into part of on a regular basis life for normal residents,” he mentioned in a cellphone interview from Adelaide, Australia, the place he and his household have settled.

Claudia Mo, veteran lawmaker, in jail

Claudia Mo was amongst 47 pro-democracy leaders charged with “conspiracy to commit subversion” after collaborating in an unofficial major election.

Prosecutors cited tv interviews and WhatsApp messages with journalists from The Wall Road Journal and The New York Occasions as proof in opposition to her. Ms. Mo has been behind bars for greater than three years and is awaiting sentencing after pleading responsible.

Based on a former lawmaker who visits Ms. Mo in jail, she has been learning French and educating English to fellow detainees, together with the finer factors of figures of speech like “inform me about it” and “over the moon.”

Ms. Mo, a former journalist, was referred to as a reasonable within the pro-democracy camp. When masked younger protesters stormed the Legislative Council with makeshift battering rams in 2019, Ms. Mo was amongst various veteran politicians urging the demonstrators to cease.

“Please ask if it’s price it,” she informed one protester. “Take into consideration your mom.”

Jimmy Lai, media mogul, in jail

Jimmy Lai, one of the outspoken critics of China’s Communist Celebration, is on trial on nationwide safety expenses.

For years, China’s state-controlled media retailers have denounced him as a “C.I.A. agent.” Prosecutors have portrayed him because the grasp conspirator behind the 2019 protests that roiled Hong Kong. Mr. Lai has pleaded not responsible.

Mr. Lai, who was born on the mainland and moved to Hong Kong at age 12, made his fortune from clothes. However after the Tiananmen bloodbath, Mr. Lai turned a writer, launching the Apple Day by day newspaper in 1995 that turned a platform for pro-democracy voices.

After Beijing imposed the 2020 safety regulation, the authorities raided Apple Day by day’s places of work and arrested Mr. Lai. The newspaper was pressured to shut in 2021 after a number of high editors and writers and a senior govt of Mr. Lai’s media group had been additionally charged with “conspiracy to commit collusion” with international forces. These former staff have pleaded responsible.

“I consider within the media, by delivering info, you’re really delivering freedom,” Mr. Lai mentioned in an interview in 2020 with The Occasions.

Nathan Regulation, activist, in exile in London

Nathan Regulation was a scholar chief in 2014 protests referred to as the Umbrella Motion, which referred to as for freer elections. He later turned the town’s youngest elected lawmaker at age 23 however was shortly disqualified.

And in 2017, he was jailed on expenses of inciting the 2014 avenue protests, together with Joshua Wong, a fellow protest chief and a outstanding face of the student-led demonstrations. Mr. Wong has served a number of jail sentences associated to protests, and is presently in custody whereas he awaits sentencing in a separate nationwide safety case.

Mr. Regulation escaped Hong Kong shortly earlier than the passage of the safety regulation and was granted asylum in Britain in 2021.

He’s now one of the outstanding younger Hong Kong activists overseas, usually testifying earlier than American and European lawmakers.

Not too long ago, he organized Hong Kong March, a monthlong cultural pageant that includes movie screenings, calligraphy lessons and gala’s in varied cities in England. He’s the founding father of Hong Kong Umbrella Neighborhood, a nonprofit targeted on the Hong Kong diaspora.

“I believe having that unbiased cultural work is essential to protect our id and historical past and sense of group,” he mentioned in a cellphone interview. “Although we’ll undoubtedly be much less related to the one in Hong Kong, we will a minimum of be extra related to the one abroad.”

Anna Kwok, activist, in exile in Washington, D.C.

Anna Kwok, a Hong Kong activist based mostly in Washington, is considered one of 13 abroad dissidents the Hong Kong authorities has focused with bounties of about $130,000 and promised to pursue “for all times.” (The others embrace Mr. Regulation and Mr. Hui.)

She had helped the protesters in 2019 from afar, elevating lots of of hundreds of {dollars} anonymously as a part of a crowdfunding marketing campaign to pay for front-page newspaper commercials criticizing the federal government.

She later turned govt director of the Hong Kong Democracy Council and urged the U.S. authorities to bar John Lee, Hong Kong’s chief, from attending the Asia-Pacific Financial Cooperation assembly in San Francisco in November. She traveled to the summit to protest the attendance of Xi Jinping, China’s chief.

In a cellphone interview, Ms. Kwok mentioned she was disheartened that the brand new safety regulation had handed with no objection or protest. She apprehensive that future generations would neglect that most of the metropolis’s residents had as soon as fought exhausting for democracy.

“Irrespective of how unfree the surroundings is, we will nonetheless maintain our minds free,” she mentioned. “And, that’s the freedom we’ve to protect.”