A pro-democracy protester at the front line of violence gripping Hong Kong Polytechnic University for 13 days in 2019 has arrived in the United States seeking political asylum, all on his own.

Cheung (not his real name), 21, decided to get out of Hong Kong early this year as he saw other protesters being arrested and charged under the city’s national security law.

As one of those who had held two press conferences on the PolyU campus during the grim standoff with police, Cheung feared that he would be next, once the authorities were able to identify him.

“I am in the position to say what happened inside PolyU, whether as a victim or as a protester. Otherwise, if one day the communist Hong Kong government discovered my role in the siege and arrested me or made me disappear, then I would really be unable to tell everyone or to protect this piece of Hong Kong history.”

Through the help of friends, Cheung left Hong Kong with just HK$20,000 (US$2,580) in his pocket and his heart in his mouth. He had no British National (Overseas) status and decided to make his way to the U.S. instead. It was not a direct journey, he said in the interview with Apple Daily, which was given before reaching the U.S., where he was taken into detention upon arrival. Apple Daily has learned that Cheung is now applying for political asylum, pending approval from the immigration authorities.

“I had to take a chance,” he said. “If I were intercepted along the way, I could really be extradited to mainland China, but there was no choice. My departure in itself was a risk too.”

In 2019, Cheung was an active member of the protests that started in June, notably in the storming of the Legislative Council on July 1 and the fight between protesters and the police at the Chinese University of Hong Kong that November.

During the PolyU incident in the second half of November, hundreds of demonstrators were besieged by police locking down the campus for almost two weeks. It came to be one of the largest and most sustained protester-police battles in the whole protest movement.

Cheung spent 13 days and nights in the thick of the action on campus. “I will never forget what happened at the time. There were too many people hurt, crying and trapped inside, and eventually worn to a frazzle,” he said.

Cheung stayed with some protesters in a locked room that the police did not raid, because it would have meant breaking down the doors and damaging the school’s resources. He managed to blend in with other people and escape after law enforcement officers retreated.

The protest movement fizzled out in early 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic took over the city.

Cheung was concerned that if the police arrested him, there would be one fewer witness to the history of the PolyU siege. The political system in the city had totally collapsed, he said, pointing to the recent mass arrest of pro-democracy figures and their detention without bail.

He advised protesters still in Hong Kong to leave as soon as possible. “We should have expected that from lawmakers to ordinary residents, the authorities would only make more arrests in the future until no one dares to say a single word.”

The young activist believed that Hong Kong protesters could unite together overseas and continue the fight for freedom for their home city.

Apple Daily is awaiting a reply from the U.S. Department of State about the status of asylum applications by Hong Kong protesters.

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