Hong Kong activist flees to UK citing ‘stringent surveillance’ by national security police following his prison release

The former leader of a Hong Kong pro-independence group said Thursday he had fled to Britain to seek asylum in breach of a police supervision order, joining a growing list of pro-democracy activists living in self-imposed exile overseas following Beijing’s crackdown on the city.

In a Facebook post, Tony Chung, 22, said he had faced “stringent surveillance” by national security police following his release from prison in June after serving a sentence for secession under a tough security law. He also claimed officers had exploited his poor financial situation in an attempt to induce him to become a paid informant.

“I feared stepping out of my home, feared using the phone in public, and worried about the possibility of being detained again by national security police officers on the streets,” he said. “Every meeting with the national security police officers filled me with dread, fearing that they may accuse me of endangering national security and would demand me to prove my innocence.”

CNN has contacted Hong Kong’s Security Bureau, National Security Department and Correctional Services Department for comment on Chung’s claims.

Chung said he traveled to Britain via Japan after obtaining permission from police to go on a Christmas trip to Okinawa.

He joins an exodus of activists that have fled since Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law on Hong Kong more than three years ago, following nearly a year of pro-democracy protests that rocked the city.

Critics of Hong Kong’s national security law – which criminalizes secession, subversion, terrorism, and collusion with foreign powers and carries a maximum punishment of life imprisonment – say it has been used to crush the city’s opposition movement, overhaul its electoral system, silence its outspoken media and cripple its once-vibrant civil society.

But the Hong Kong government and Chinese authorities have repeatedly rejected such criticisms and said the law helped the city “restore stability” following the 2019 protests.

Earlier this month, Agnes Chow, one of the most prominent faces of the pro-democracy movement, revealed she had fled to Canada and would not return to Hong Kong to meet bail conditions as police investigate allegations she endangered national security.

Hong Kong police have recently placed HK$1 million ($128,000) bounties on a number of democracy activists living in self-imposed exile in a move condemned by the United States and United Kingdom.

All of those wanted now live in the US, Canada, Britain and Australia, which have suspended their extradition treaties with Hong Kong due to concerns over the security law.