Path Of Exile Hong Kong

[Karina Edling]

Brendan Clift does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

The Hong Kong government has extended its efforts to suppress political dissent overseas, issuing arrest warrants for eight exiled pro-democracy figures and offering bounties of HK$1 million (around A$191,000) each.

A curious feature of the national security law is its purported extraterritorial effect. It claims jurisdiction over any person of any nationality who has committed any of its offences anywhere in the world.

Moreover, extradition is guided by bilateral agreements between jurisdictions. Numerous Western countries, including the UK, US, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, suspended their extradition agreements with Hong Kong when the national security law was imposed, foreseeing the politicisation of criminal justice.

The risk goes beyond formal arrest and extradition. The bounties on offer may encourage vigilantism, and sympathetic governments may turn a blind eye to or even facilitate extra-legal rendition of the eight exiled activists.

Beijing imposed the national security law on Hong Kong in mid-2020, after huge and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests had rocked the territory the previous year, claiming the legislation was necessary to restore stability. The law punishes activities deemed as subversion, secession, collusion with foreign forces, and extremism with up to life in prison, and has led to hundreds of arrests. Others, including elected politicians, activists and journalists have gone into exile.

A number of prominent activists and politicians have secured asylum in London since the crackdown, while the UK has given all Hong Kong people with British National Overseas (BNO) status the right to settle and a path to citizenship.

Many Hong Kong journalists have since moved overseas to countries including the U.K., U.S., Australia and Canada since the legislation passed. In spite of sustained threats to their safety and attempts to censor their coverage, these diasporic journalists have continued to report from abroad for local Hongkongers.

Journalists working in exile today have established media organizations that counter Chinese and Hong Kong state-issued disinformation. A small, tight-knit group of journalists, their support has proved vital to the continued output of uncensored news to Hongkongers.

Isabella is an undergraduate student at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she is majoring in Global Studies and Environmental Studies and minoring in Journalism. She is the Communications Consultant for the ICFJ Knight Fellowships team.

Larry Diamond: [00:00:00] Greetings everyone. we're going to do something that doesn't always happen at Stanford University. We're going to start on time. And part of the reason why we're going to start on time is because we have a webinar audience. That is with us and is waiting and, expects us to start on time and they can't schmooze with one another the way we can in person.

I'm Larry Diamond. I'm a senior fellow here at the Hoover Institution. and, with Glenn Tifford, I lead the program on China's global sharp power here, at, at Hoover. I also want to thank Francis Hiskin for her work and organizing this. Thank you, Francis. [00:01:00] and thank you to the, remarkable staff here at Hoover.

Janet, thank you for you and your team, who do so much to make everything work so smoothly. the way we're going to proceed, is that I am in a moment going to introduce our four speakers, and then I'm going to, dim the lights, by appeal to our staff, and we're going to show a remarkable, short video, a very powerful video, with the person, featuring the person who is not in this room, Who we dearly wish was in this room, but who is sitting in a jail in Hong Kong and whose spirit is in this room and whose son is in this room, and that is Jimmy Lai.

And then we will have, each of [00:02:00] our, panelists speak for about seven minutes, and then I'll have a conversation with them. And then you can have a conversation with them by writing a question on the note cards, that we've Passed out or on the pads of paper that are on your chair, and we'll come and collect those and organize them and read them.

So let me begin with the son of Jimmy Lai, that is Sebastian Lai, immediately to my left. he leads the international campaign to free his father, Jimmy Lai, the pro democracy, activist and publisher. Currently jailed, and I will say as a political prisoner by the Hong Kong government, having had international calls for his release from multiple states, including the U.

S. In the U. K. Jimmy lies. Ongoing persecution mirrors the rapid decline of human rights in Hong Kong as well as press [00:03:00] freedom and the rule of law. Our next speaker, Knows the Hong Kong situation well as an American who served there. as a cons general from 2005 to 2008. I was very privileged to be able to visit when he was there.

And thank you for receiving me. he is Ambassador James B. Cunningham, prior to, serving as, US Cons General, in Hong Kong. He served as ambassador and deputy permanent representative to the United Nations. And after his service in Hong Kong, he was U S ambassador to Afghanistan and then to Israel.

So the United States government has tapped him multiple times for very difficult assignments. and he's had a very, distinguished career as an American diplomat, as a career [00:04:00] minister. And he's currently a consultant. A non-resident, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, and an adjunct FA adjunct faculty member at his alma mater Syracuse University at its Maxwell School of Public Policy.

He's also the board chair of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation. Next we have Sophie Richardson, a longtime activist and scholar of Chinese politics, human rights, and foreign policy. Currently a visiting scholar across the way here at the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law at Stanford.

I think you know her best. As the China director at Human Rights Watch from 2006 to 2023. There she oversaw the organization's research and advocacy. She's published extensively on human rights in China. She's the author of China, Cambodia, and the five principles of [00:05:00] peaceful coexistence. She has her doctorate from the University of Virginia.

And her current research focuses on the global implications of democracies around the world, responding so weakly to increasingly repressive Chinese governments. Finally, Sherry Wong is a nonpartisan policy analyst and advocate, and, her influential leadership Alliance Canada, Hong Kong, a grassroots community organization has garnered international attention for its comprehensive research publications and eloquent unwavering advocacy in Canada, China relations.

Recognized for her nuanced and progressive approach, Sherry Wong is a sought after authority among decision makers, academics, journalists, researchers, and policy [00:06:00] makers. She has frequently appeared before parliamentary committees and Canadian media. As an expert commentator speaking on diverse public policy issues such as international human rights and transnational repression.

So if you've just come in, you've come in at exactly the right time because the video clip we're going to show you now is so deeply moving. That I am going to get out of my seat to watch it for a third time.

Then came the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre. Mr. Lai sold his stake in Giordano, founding the pro democracy Next magazine, and the Apple Daily, again a pro democracy outlet, We have to confront the biggest enemy. [00:07:00] In the democracy protests that swept Hong Kong, Mr. Lai, now in his 70s, insisted on marching in front, where the authorities could see him.

Peter: some 200 police raided Mr. Lai's offices, handcuffed him, and then before taking him away, walked him around the floor of his newsroom so that all his journalists would see what was happening.

Lai: of speech? We have to fight. Otherwise, we will lose everything. If we lose freedom, we will lose everything. I think that is the dim hope we still have. If the consequences comes, I will just accept it as my destiny. And if it's my destiny, it's God's blessing.

We have been fighting for freedom for 30 years. Democracy is only the means to the end. The end is freedom. Any suffering is a blessing. Any suffering is experience. I don't treat suffering as something very tough. I'm almost 73. [00:09:00] maybe I need another way to understand life, another way to live my life to a fuller extent.

And the imposition of Article 23 on March 23rd, 2024. this was not the beginning of the repression of Asper and denial of aspirations for democracy in Hong Kong. and so we want to look back, further in time and ponder, what has [00:10:00] happened to Hong Kong. It's rule of law. It's democratic aspirations.

It's remarkably vibrant civil society. It's incredible free press, which apple daily was really, in many ways, the headliner of the leader of, and I will just say, finally, before I turn it over to you, Sebastian, I've told you privately, I'll say now publicly, that one of the most, poignant Moments I've had as a democracy scholar was hearing your father speak here at the Hoover Institution, and, he was asked, I actually don't remember whether it was publicly or privately.

Why are you going back? You're facing probable imprisonment. He knew what he was looking at. And, the answer he gave is the answer people saw, [00:11:00] in that film. And we'll let you elaborate on it and, tell us how he's doing and what we can do.

just to answer that question first, in campaigning for my father over the last few years, campaigning for his release, you end up reading a lot of, things about him and watching a lot of interviews. And, I came across this quote that, he said to CNN, About 15 years ago. And, it, it essentially says, that he believes that you can't have dignity unless you have freedom as a person and therefore campaigning for democracy isn't political.

c80f0f1006