A Hong Kong man renounced his Chinese nationality due to fears that the city’s freedoms are eroding, only to find out two years later that a semi-official Chinese travel agency is aware of his move.

Anthony Lam (Lam Yue-yeung) was mystified when he received a call from China Travel Service in 2018, an accredited agency in Hong Kong that issues residents’ permit to enter the mainland, to remind him to give up his China permit. Lam was a former chief executive of the online pro-democracy news portal Meme Hong Kong and the husband of Erica Yuen Mi-ming, a former chair of People Power political party.

Under the “one country, two systems” principle, Hong Kong residents have to apply for a separate permit to enter mainland China the same way mainland residents cannot enter Hong Kong without proper documentation.

“The renunciation of Chinese nationality was done at Hong Kong’s Immigration Department and it has nothing to do with China Travel Service,” he told Apple Daily.

Now a Canadian citizen, Lam is demanding an explanation as to how his application could have been shared with a third party. “Is there someone sitting with a computer and sharing all my information at a click of a button?”

In response to an Apple Daily’s enquiry, Hong Kong Immigration Department said it will not jeopardise any personnel’s privacy in dealing with requests for information from a third party. China Travel Service was not available for a comment when approached by the newspaper.

Migration experts say there has been an increase of enquiries in recent years with residents fearing their liberties might be lost as Beijing tightens its grip over the city. Lam said he decided to renounce his Chinese nationality in 2016, shocked by the news of several booksellers who went missing for the books they had published. “I was born to love freedom. If you put restraints on me, I will just try and detach from them,” he said.

---------------------------------
Apple Daily’s all-new English Edition is now available on the mobile app
To know more: https://bit.ly/2yMMfQE
Apple Daily mobile app latest version DOWNLOAD NOW