HONG KONG – For more than a year, the teenager’s weekends were dominated by marches, during which she built protest slogans, built barricades and escaped tear gas canisters, and in the evenings returned to her home in Hong Kong covered with bruises and scratches.
However, as Beijing has intensified its fight against pro-democracy lawmakers and student activists over the past year, participation in the protests has become increasingly dangerous. And in December, the 15-year-old who was known by journalists and fellow protesters simply as ‘Aurora’ boarded a plane to London, paid for the ticket through an anonymous activist in Hong Kong.
The decision to seek political asylum in the UK made her one of Hong Kong’s youngest exiles.
“I was very worried about being caught at the airport seeking asylum in the UK,” the teenager, who asked for anonymity for fear of being punished by her family for her involvement in protests, told NBC News said. “But on the flight, I finally feel safer and the most relaxed in a long time.”
Her political awakening took place in June 2019, after an estimated 1 million protesters took to the streets to protest against an extradition bill that could hear Hong Kong residents accused of sending offenses to mainland China.
Three days later, on June 12, she and her classmates attended a second rally in a busy commercial district, which turned into one of the most violent demonstrations Hong Kong has seen in decades. The police shot at demonstrators with rubber-coated bullets, tear gas and pepper spray. Some protesters attacked officers and hurled Molotov cocktails at them.
She said she was impressed by the activists’ solidarity.
“I always thought Hong Kongers were cold to each other, but their unity touched me deeply and made me burst into tears,” she said.
From then on, she became more politically involved and read the news every day, and she formed close ties with her fellow protesters.
“I feel like protesters are more like my family, and they understand me better than my own,” the teenager said, adding that her mother did not approve of her daughter’s activism. Her parents were divorced and she was estranged from her father.
Major demonstrations that followed were fueled by fears that residents would lose their rights and independent legal system, amid an erosion of the region’s one country, two systems’ agreement instituted when Britain annexed its colony in 1997. China returns.
On June 30 last year, a controversial national security law came into force that criminalizes actions that Beijing views as undermining, secession, collusion with foreign forces or terrorism.
Arrests of pro-democracy lawmakers and student activists have been on the rise since the law was implemented.
In October, Tong Chung, 19, the former leader of an independence student group, was arrested and becomes the first high-profile political figure to be charged under national law. If convicted, he could face life in prison. More recently, in March, 47 pro-democracy politicians were arrested under the new law, the biggest repression of the movement to date.
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On Friday, nine leading pro-democracy advocates were jailed for organizing a march during the protests in 2019 that caused a repression of Beijing.
The United States and other countries have slammed sanctions on Chinese officials over the repression in Hong Kong, with Washington calling their actions an “attack on democracy”.
Beijing opposed its actions in Hong Kong defending its national sovereignty and called on other countries to stop interfering in its domestic affairs.
Larry Lai, a lecturer in the Department of Politics and Public Administration at the University of Hong Kong, said young protesters tend to want to leave Hong Kong mainly for security reasons.
“The law on national security and how it is enforced justifies their concerns,” he said.
The UK in particular was an attractive destination due to the close ties with Hong Kong. In July, it announced a new visa program that provides a special path for British National Overseas, or BNO, passport holders to relocate into the country, with a fast track to citizenship. Nearly 3 million Hong Kongers have been offered shelter and a possible path to British citizenship, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in June.
This year, Beijing said it would no longer recognize GNP passports as valid.
But female refugees – especially those who are minors – have a harder time integrating into British society and gaining access to things like housing and financial support, according to Nando Sigona, chair of international migration and forced displacement and a professor specializing in in migration at the University of Birmingham.
“Services and support are mostly targeted at single men and families,” he said.
For now, the teenager lives with a family in London and spends her time reading and studying while her asylum application is pending. One day she hopes she can return home.
“I hope Hong Kong protesters do not give up,” she said. “If you give up now, all our efforts will be wasted.”