HONG KONG — An activist who advocated for Hong Kong independence and was imprisoned under a sweeping national security law has fled to Britain to seek political asylum, according to his social media posts on Friday.
Tony Chung was among the first people convicted under the Beijing-imposed law introduced after the 2019 pro-democracy protests. He was found guilty of secession and money laundering in 2020 and sentenced to 43 months in prison.
The intimidation faced by Hong Kong dissidents like Chung reflects the drastic erosion of the freedoms promised to the former British colony when it returned to China in 1997. But both Beijing and Hong Kong have hailed the security law as bringing stability to the city.
Chung detailed in two Instagram posts how he was under a supervision order after his release from prison, banned from public speaking. He was asked to meet with national security authorities regularly and report on his whereabouts, people he had met and conversations he had.
He was prevented from taking up a specific summer job, he said, which effectively stripped him of financial autonomy. The authorities offered to pay him for information about others to prove he had reformed himself, he wrote, and wanted him to go to mainland China.
Chung said he was made to sign a document that barred him from disclosing his conversations with the authorities, so he could not seek help from any lawyers nor tell anyone about his situation.
"Under enormous stress and fear, I can only endure silently," he said.
He started getting sick in October and doctors told him his immune system was compromised due to massive mental stress, he said in his posts. He later persuaded correctional services authorities to let him travel to Okinawa, Japan, for a holiday to manage his emotions. During the trip, he sought help from organizations and people based overseas. He arrived in Britain from Japan on Wednesday to seek asylum.