Nathan Law, one of the movement’s prominent voices calling for democratic reform in Hong Kong’s Chinese special administrative region, has applied for asylum in the UK.
The asylum application came six months after the activist left Hong Kong on the eve of the entry into force of national security legislation, forced by Beijing despite the opposition felt by both the special administrative region and the international community.
China is accused of liquidating Hong Kong’s autonomy and of wanting to silence voices that contest the regime, led by Xi Jinping.
“Many people, for a long time, worked under a fantasy that China would be a strategic partner for the West, that it would perhaps be a part of the democratic world,” considers Nathan through an opinion article published today in The Guardian.
It was through this text that the 27-year-old activist revealed that he applied for asylum to the British government. The UK was the country chosen by Nathan Law, as it could “sound an alarm” over a resolution that European democracies face because of the Chinese Communist Party.
“The process of waking up from this illusion takes time. In the United States, the adoption of an assertive stance towards China and positioning it as one of the country’s biggest enemies is now a bipartisan consensus. This is not the case in the United Kingdom and the European Union (EU). That consensus needs to be built ”, continued the activist.
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