Last July, five young men boarded a recreational boat in a remote port in Hong Kong. They passed through waters patrolled by the Chinese authorities and are heading east, across the South China Sea.
When they got close to Taiwan, they turned off their car in hopes of being rescued by the Taiwanese coastguard. They were lucky.
Now, after months in Taiwan, they plan to seek asylum in the United States, where they arrived at New York International Airport in New York on Wednesday.
They are part of a drop of political activists who have fled Hong Kong since the central government of China introduced a tough national security law on the city in June, which has sniffed out many forms of political disagreement, including the protest against democracy in which the five men participated.
The report of their escape from Hong Kong, their stay in Taiwan and their arrival in the United States was provided by Samuel Chu, founder of the Hong Kong Democracy Council, an advocacy group in Washington that arranged for the men’s travel and accommodation. help them to apply for asylum. None of the five men wanted to be identified out of concern that it would endanger their family members in Hong Kong. One of them spoke on condition of anonymity.
While in Taiwan, they were detained on a military basis and were not allowed to communicate with their family and friends, although the man who agreed to be questioned said they were treated well. They believed the United States offered the best chance for their lives to begin again, he said.
After weeks of negotiations, the men were admitted to the United States on humanitarian grounds, Mr. Chu said.
Their arrival in the United States could create further tensions between China and the United States, which would pose an early challenge to the incoming Biden government, just as relations between the two countries are at their lowest point in decades.
China has hailed Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protesters as criminals, while the United States and other democracies have challenged China over the fight against the city’s freedoms. The involvement of Taiwan, a self-governing island democracy claimed by China, only adds to the sensitivity.
Spokesmen for the State Department and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services declined to comment on the matter, citing privacy issues. A spokesman for the American Institute in Taiwan, which serves as the U.S. embassy, also declined to comment, nor did a spokesman for the Taiwanese Mainland Council.
All five protesters, aged between 18 and 26, fled Hong Kong for fear they would soon be jailed, and at least one has been previously arrested in connection with his role in the protests. Chu said.
The move by the Trump administration to give men access to humanitarian grounds in recent days stands in contrast to the dramatic reduction in refugee quotas over the past four years. In December, legislation in Congress that would make it easier for Hong Kong residents to obtain refugee status was blocked by Senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican.
A few years ago, the idea of political dissidents fleeing Hong Kong, a former British colony that returned to the Chinese government in 1997, would have seemed unimaginable. Hong Kong’s more than 7 million people have one of the world’s highest per capita incomes and enjoy political freedoms unknown in China.
But after Xi Jinping became China’s leading leader in late 2012, Beijing began to rule Hong Kong with an increasingly heavy hand. The national security law, introduced after massive and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests that swept the city in 2019, has prompted some activists to leave. Most depart in a much less dramatic way and board a plane to Europe or North America; others, for fear of arrest at the airport, entered the sea.
In August, weeks after the five men left for Taiwan, 12 other Hong Kong activists were caught by the Chinese Coast Guard trying to reach the island. Most of them were arrested in Hong Kong and left to avoid trial. They were detained on the mainland of China for months without charges; in December, 10 of the activists received prison sentences ranging from seven months to three years, two of them for organizing the escape attempt and the other for illegally crossing a border. Two other activists, both youths, were returned to Hong Kong.
Other countries have also taken in activists in Hong Kong. Canada has granted asylum to 14 Hong Kong people since the end of December, according to a statement from the New Hong Kong Cultural Club Canada, a volunteer group that assists political refugees from the city. In October, the Hong Kong government protested against the granting of asylum to a demonstration leader facing charges of riots.
Britain is offering a new visa to Hong Kong residents that will enable the millions of those born before the 1997 handover to eventually become British citizens.
Amy Qin and Amy Chang Chien reported.