The Hong Kong government has been making arrests in response to the anti-amendment movement, and demonstrators have been leaving Hong Kong to seek political asylum in other countries, with Britain being one of the “escape doors” for the exiles. According to the British Home Office, there were 11 applications for asylum from Hong Kong people in the first half of this year, which is more than the number of applications last year.
On September 25, Deutsche Welle reported that Zheng Wenjie, a former employee of the British Consulate General in Hong Kong who had been detained and charged by Chinese authorities, was granted political asylum by the British government at the end of June this year. The case of Zheng Wenjie has caused many Hong Kong social activists and anti-draft demonstrators who feel politically persecuted to apply for asylum in exile in the UK, including 18-year-old Liu Kang.
Liu Kang has publicly criticized the Hong Kong and Chinese governments, and has also published a book advocating Hong Kong independence. There have been earlier reports that Liu Kang is suspected of violating the National Security Law and is wanted by Hong Kong police along with other Hong Kong people overseas, including Law Kwun Chung and Cheng Man Kit. Liu Kang left Hong Kong at the end of June for the United Kingdom before the National Security Law took effect and applied for political asylum at the airport border as soon as he got off the plane.
Baosheng (a pseudonym) fled to the United Kingdom in July this year to seek political asylum after being charged with eight counts of rioting and criminal damage for his participation in the “brave and courageous” anti-regulation demonstration. He feels that the charges against him are “trumped up”.
Unlike Liu Kang and Bausheng, who advocated independence for Hong Kong, Sunny, who is in exile because of the arrest and prosecution, called himself “Wo Li Fei”, had only participated in the anti-revisionist demonstrations, but because he had organized a group of Hong Kong people in the UK with Cheng Wenjie, and the news that Cheng was later arrested by the Hong Kong police, he felt that he would also be politically persecuted. In early August, he applied to the British authorities for asylum with the help of his lawyer.
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