‘Filled with fear’: Former Hong Kong student leader seeks UK asylum

Tony Chung was released in June after serving jail term under security law but said he lived under constant pressure from authorities.

Tony Chung, the former leader of a Hong Kong pro-independence group who was jailed under the territory’s national security law, has fled to the United Kingdom saying his life in Hong Kong was “filled with fear”.

Chung, who was 20 when he was sentenced to three and a half years in prison in 2021 after pleading guilty to “secession“, said in a social media post that he had flown to the UK from Japan and arrived in London on the evening of December 27 where he “formally applied for political asylum” on entry.

He shared a picture of himself at UK arrivals with his suitcase.

“Even though I had anticipated this day in the past, I still felt heavy after making up my mind,” wrote Chung, who as a teenager headed the now-defunct Studentlocalism group. “Since I joined the political struggle at the age of 14, I have always believed that Hong Kong is the only home of our Hong Kong nation, and we should never be the ones to leave.”

Beijing imposed the national security law on Hong Kong in mid-2020, after huge and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests had rocked the territory the previous year, claiming the legislation was necessary to restore stability. The law punishes activities deemed as subversion, secession, collusion with foreign forces, and extremism with up to life in prison, and has led to hundreds of arrests. Others, including elected politicians, activists and journalists have gone into exile.