A pair of young protesters from Hong Kong received refugee protection status in the United States this week, said a former student leader of China’s 1989 movement for democracy now based in Los Angeles.

The two people were granted refugee status on Tuesday, according to Zheng Cunzhu, who spoke exclusively to Apple Daily. He made the revelation citing the latest information from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, without disclosing their gender or ages.

Another four or five Hong Kong people now in the U.S. had contacted Zheng in his capacity as an immigration consultant for a law firm in Los Angeles, in the hope of applying for political asylum, he added.

The two young people participated in anti-extradition bill protests in Hong Kong last year, Zheng said. He did not reveal whether they were facing any criminal charges laid by the Hong Kong police in relation to the months-long demonstrations.

They traveled to the U.S. early this year, but due to the outbreak of COVID-19, the immigration authorities had suspended their services, Zheng said. It was not until June, when the authorities resumed services, that the Hong Kong pair were able to file asylum applications. A meeting was subsequently arranged in August.

Zheng said the two young people were elated upon receiving the news of their successful applications. Over the last few months in the U.S., they continued to join local protest activities supporting Hong Kong, he said.

There was, however, also sadness at their asylum approvals as the development meant Hongkongers were having to flee from a city that had once instilled pride in people but had become a place with severe deterioration in human rights in the past year, he said.

Before 2019, Hongkongers rarely saw a need to seek political asylum, and democratic countries in the west would also find it difficult to grant them asylum, Zheng said.

Since the protesters' movement against a now-shelved extradition bill started in June last year, the police brutality witnessed during the ensuing crackdown, followed by the passage of a national security law this June, had proven the Chinese government’s complete disregard of its commitment of “one country, two systems” to Hongkongers, and the U.S. could no longer recognize Hong Kong as an independent region capable of upholding democracy and the rule of law, he said.

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