Hong Kong democracy activist granted asylum after fleeing to Australia
Mr Hui, a former Hong Kong parliamentarian, fled the city four years ago and first arrived in Europe in December 2020. In March 2021, he became the first Hong Kong politician to be granted a special travel exemption during coronavirus restrictions to enter Australia.
In 2022, Mr Hui was convicted in Hong Kong in his absence on charges of taking part in a pro-democracy protest and was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in jail.
On Saturday, Mr Hui said he had 'received formal notification from the Australian Department of Home Affairs that I have been granted asylum in Australia'.
In an emotional post, he said: 'When people around me say 'congratulations' to me, although I politely thank them, I can't help but feel sad in my heart. How to congratulate a political refugee who misses his hometown?"
"If it weren't for political persecution, I would never have thought of living in a foreign land. Immigrants can always return to their home towns to visit relatives at any time; Exiles have no home."
Mr Hui, who is now an Adelaide-based lawyer, said he identifies more closely with Australia today than he did when he arrived four years ago, and said he 'believe[s] asylum also carries responsibility'. 'My family and I are determined to give back to Australia in every way we can—through our work, our civic engagement, and our commitment to the values of democracy and freedom,' he said.
The Australian government's 'decision reflects values of freedom, justice, and compassion that my family will never take for granted,' he added.
The 42-year-old father, a prominent critic of both the Hong Kong government and Beijing, was one of several overseas activists hit with Hong Kong police bounties of HK$1m (about £94,281) each in 2023.
While these bounties have drawn condemnation from Western governments, they are largely viewed as symbolic gestures, since most of those targeted live in countries with little prospect of extradition to Hong Kong or mainland China.
In Adelaide, where Mr Hui is based, the campaign against him has taken a more personal turn. Earlier this year, his colleagues received an anonymous letter offering $203,000 Australian dollars for information about his movements and family.
Around the same time, fake pamphlets portraying Mr Hui as a pro-Israel lawyer bent on 'waging war' against Islamic terrorism were reportedly circulated to local mosques, apparently in an effort to threaten and discredit him.
At that time, Mr Hui blamed 'the Chinese regime's long arm' for harassing him internationally.
Mr Hui concluded his post by requesting the Australian government not to forget those still suffering in Hong Kong's prisons, mentioning a number of activists including Jimmy Lai, the media mogul and British citizen who is currently on trial in the city.
'Australia must do more to rescue them and to speak up for their humanity,' Mr Hui said. 'Its stance matters internationally, and its protection of Hongkongers sets a precedent for other democracies.'
The Hong Kong government said in a statement that it was 'against the harbouring of criminals in any form by any country'.
Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese visited Beijing last month as part of his administration's years-long push to improve ties with China, Australia's number one export market. The relationship suffered a number of blows during the pandemic as both countries hit each other with punitive trade tariffs.
During the visit, Xi Jinping said the China-Australia relationship 'has risen from the setbacks and turned around, bringing tangible benefits to the Chinese and Australian peoples'.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Yahoo
Top German diplomat criticizes China ahead of Japan, Indonesia visit
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, just ahead of a trip to Japan and Indonesia, criticized China on Sunday for its increasingly aggressive behaviour in the Taiwan Strait and the East and South China Seas. "Fundamental rules of our global coexistence are at stake here," he warned before his departure from the Hamburg Airport. This also has implications for Europe, he added. Germany is countering this by advocating for "an international order based on the strength of the rule of law and binding rules for all." Wadephul is scheduled to meet Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya and several ministers responsible for economic affairs in Tokyo on Monday. A speech at a peace foundation is also planned. "Our freedom, our prosperity and our security—the goals that guide me as foreign minister—are not decided in Europe alone. They are decided especially in cooperation with strong partners worldwide," the minister said, explaining the purpose of his trip. Minister stresses importance of open sea routes "The Indo-Pacific is crucial in determining how secure the freedom of sea routes, global supply chains and, consequently, the economic development of the entire world remains," Wadephul said. This is of paramount importance for major exporting economies like Germany and Japan, as well as for emerging partners in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), such as Indonesia, he said. Germany's foreign minister is set to visit Indonesia on Wednesday. He criticized China for challenging the economies of Germany and Japan with unfair and market-distorting trade practices. He also noted that US tariff policies are unsettling businesses in Europe and Asia. Germany, he said, is working with key partners like Japan and Indonesia to promote economic relations based on free trade, competition and fairness. Germany shares more with Japan than with almost any other country in the Indo-Pacific region, the minister added. "We are united by values and interests, and we face the same massive challenges that call our liberal way of life into question." Solve the daily Crossword
Forbes
9 hours ago
- Forbes
The U.S. Message To Australia And Japan
The United States is, not surprisingly, concerned about alliance burden-sharing and security commitments, recently focusing on Australia and Japan and their respective views toward Taiwan. U.S. Undersecretary of Defense Elbridge Colby has raised this issue in conversations with Australian and Japanese leadership, asking these two U.S. allies to clarify their security commitments to Taiwan in the event of a mainland Chinese attack. The U.S. itself has long maintained a posture of 'strategic ambiguity,' deliberately avoiding specifics about its potential response to such a scenario. Colby's initiative aimed to signal regional unity in the U.S. effort to preserve the status quo between Taiwan and the mainland. It also carried a practical appeal: encouraging U.S. allies to strengthen their defense capabilities. Burden-sharing remains a perennial challenge in alliances, driven by the natural temptation for partners to save on defense expenditures and, relatively speaking, benefit from the U.S. defense budget. Partners tend to underinvest in their own defense, relying on the U.S. security umbrella. Here lies the paradox: neither Japan nor Australia can independently defend Taiwan. Only the United States possesses the military capacity—and therefore the credibility—to deter the People's Republic of China. Only the U.S. can impose long-term costs on China. Whether Australia or Japan increases or decreases its defense spending, the sole indispensable component of deterrence remains U.S. credibility. Japan knows this. Australia knows this. The U.S. knows this. Most importantly, China knows this. So why would Japan or Australia seek to strengthen their security commitments to Taiwan when doing so offers no meaningful advantage to Taiwan but risks provoking China? While Colby's outreach stirred debate in both countries, officials reiterated their positions of not formalizing any commitment to a hypothetical conflict. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese stated that Australia would not commit troops in advance to any conflict. That ambiguity reflects a desire to maintain strategic flexibility and avoid premature entanglement in a potential war. This conversation unfolds at a moment when the Trump administration is challenging or reshaping long-held positions and procedures in the Asia-Pacific and beyond. As Trump imposes higher tariffs on both Australia and Japan, the U.S. signals a shift away from its traditional role in alliance leadership and regional problem-solving—making itself a less attractive partner by reducing predictability and increasing the cost of engagement. Much of what the U.S. is attempting in its trade relationship with Australia is viewed as unnecessary, counterproductive, or even in bad faith. The U.S. has a Free Trade Agreement with Australia that eliminates tariffs on nearly all bilateral trade. In fact, the U.S. currently enjoys a trade surplus with Australia—one of Trump's stated trade goals. Rather than leading with a call for increased commitment to Taiwan, the U.S. could have pursued a less controversial approach: encouraging Japan and Australia to expand joint military exercises, enhance maritime surveillance, or simply boost defense spending without direct reference to China. By centering its request on Taiwan, the U.S. chose the approach least likely to elicit a positive response from its allies. The Trump administration's outreach to Japan and Australia appears to have resulted in diminished confidence in the U.S. and reduced credibility regarding Taiwan. The paradox is that the U.S. may still see incremental increases in both countries' defense budgets in the coming years—but driven by concern about the U.S., not concern about China.
Yahoo
11 hours ago
- Yahoo
The US May Have Already Lost the AI Race to China Due to a Key Weakness
You might have heard of an "AI race" heating up between the US and China, a bitter rivalry between two global adversaries that could shape the direction of world history. At least, that's how some in the US feel. While China has repeatedly tried to establish a geopolitical friendship with the richest nation in the world, officials and pundits in the US have doubled down, reframing artificial intelligence as the 21st century's nuclear bomb. In the meantime, China may have gotten a massive lead — by actively investing in its power grid, while the United States' is quickly running out of capacity to power immensely power-hungry AI models. As Fortune reports, Americans who've had a look at China's technological development firsthand found that the two country's aren't even in the same league, given China's next-level power grid. "Energy is considered a solved problem," wrote Rui Ma, editor of the US publication Tech Buzz China. "Everywhere we went, people treated energy availability as a given," she continued. "This is a stark contrast to the US, where AI growth is increasingly tied to debates over data center power consumption and grid limitations." AI is a notoriously energy-intensive technology. The data centers powering large language models like ChatGPT are immense labyrinths of computer chips, which suck down resources like power and water in order to keep up with demand. As Fortune notes, this effectively makes electricity the key bottleneck for expanding AI infrastructure. That's caused some critical shortages in the US. Short on energy and hopped up on fantasies of an arms race, American companies are resorting to all kinds of bizarre strategies to get their juice. Elon Musk's xAI, for example, is running 35 portable methane gas generators in the parking lot of one of its main datacenters in Memphis, encircling nearby communities in a cloud of noxious smog. China has no such problems. In 2024, China was responsible for nearly 65 percent of the world's renewable energy construction, installing so many solar panels and wind turbines that it caused the country's CO2 emissions to drop for the first time — despite record-high demands for energy. Whether or not the US can catch up remains to be seen. President Donald Trump previously made an off-the-cuff remark about attaching coal power plants to data centers directly. It's an unfortunate conundrum in an age when energy demand in the US has never been higher. In the meantime, China keeps chugging along, seemingly unperturbed by any energy bottlenecks — and the Trump administration's posturing. More on AI: AI Datacenters Are Raising Nearby Residents' Electric Bills Solve the daily Crossword
