Frances Hui of We The Hongkongers is latest activist to reveal exit for safety reasons
Yet another young political activist has announced her departure from Hong Kong for the sake of personal safety, a concern that she says has been bothering her for several months.
Frances Hui, co-founder of the United States-based group We The Hongkongers, on Thursday unveiled in a post on social media that she was no longer in Hong Kong. She said that a few months ago, she had received warnings from friends indicating her likelihood of facing political persecution from the city’s government and was thus prompted to head overseas.
Hui, now 21, was the student in Boston who set off a fiery debate within and outside China in April last year by penning an article entitled “I am from Hong Kong, not China,” in which she dwelt at length on the identity of Hongkongers in a college newspaper. Her words drew attacks from many supporters of China at the time.
“I was born as a Hongkonger and I will die as a Hong Kong soul,” she wrote on Thursday, expressing her yearning for the day when she could return to the city and reunite with everyone.
She emphasised that leaving Hong Kong would not spell the end of her activism, and she would continue devoting herself to the city’s social movement abroad, until the day justice returned to her homeland.
The fresh graduate of journalism from Boston’s Emerson College was once a member of Scholarism, the student group led by fellow activist Joshua Wong that was disbanded in 2016.
In an interview with Apple Daily, Hui said that she was not a U.S. citizen. For the moment, she needed time to settle down and look for ways to live outside Hong Kong.
Hui also said on her post that while she counted herself fortunate, she felt utterly ashamed at the same time, knowing how a lot of her compatriots were sacrificing themselves, having been arrested, detained in mainland China or held in prison. The pain was unspeakable, she said, whenever she thought of being unable to see her family and friends ever again.
The “restless sense of guilt” at leaving them behind made her feel all the more compelled to devote herself to speaking up for Hong Kong and using her strength to fight the enemy.
The fact that many pro-democracy activists were currently in exile or trying to leave Hong Kong should alert the international community to “the end of democracy and freedom in Hong Kong,” Hui told Apple Daily.
“And the next one could be you … as China is a country that threatens human rights.”
Hui said her exit was not meant to discourage other Hong Kong people. She just wanted to tell the public about her own choice, that “whether to leave or to stay, it is a choice.”
Hui said she would persevere in her efforts through the group she had founded, to unite Hongkongers living in the U.S. to participate in civil society and fight for democracy and freedom for Hong Kong in the American political system.
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