In November 2021, Tony Chung, who was then 20, was sentenced to 43 months in prison for trying to separate the city from China, and for money laundering. - TONY CHUNG/FACEBOOK
LONDON: Hong Kong student activist Tony Chung has fled to Britain, according to an Instagram post on Thursday (Dec 28).
Chung said in the post, which also carried a photo of his arrival at London's Heathrow Airport, that he arrived in Britain on Wednesday evening and that he would apply for asylum there.
The 22-year-old former convenor of the pro-independence group Studentlocalism was released from prison in the summer. He was convicted in 2021 for allegedly violating the strict national security law imposed on Hong Kong by Beijing in June 2020. Chung was first sentenced to prison at the end of 2020 for his involvement in the democracy protests in Hong Kong.
The young activist told British broadcaster BBC he had been under an "enormous amount of stress."
Ching said he was under a supervision order requiring him to apply for permission to travel overseas. Authorities had allowed him to go on a short holiday to Japan. While there, he decided to go on to Britain, he said.
The security law, imposed by Beijing in June 2020 following huge protests for more democracy in Hong Kong, massively curtails the political rights of the opposition as well as of civil rights organisations. The law is aimed at activists that Beijing sees as subversive, separatist, terrorist or conspiratorial.
Many activists have since either been sentenced or gone into exile.
Agnes Chow, another well-known Hong Kong activist, has recently fled to Canada. - dpa
