Hong Kong activist Ted Hui arrives in Australia in bid to spread pro-democracy movement

Ted Hui was among a number of Hong Kong activists in the UK after fleeing the city state (file photo)

Credit: Paul Grover for the Telegraph

Self-exiled Hong Kong democracy activist Ted Hui has left Britain for Australia in a bid to spread the Hong Kong protest movement into a new territory.  

Mr Hui was one of the 15 pro-democracy lawmakers who resigned en masse from the city’s Legislative Council in November after four of his colleagues had been disqualified.

He fled Hong Kong shortly afterwards, first arriving in Denmark, then moving to Britain, as he faced criminal charges over the anti-government protests in 2019.

He landed in Australia on Monday and is now in hotel quarantine for 14 days after Canberra granted him a special exemption to enter, despite the country’s strict Covid border rules.

Mr Hui in the 2019 anti-government protests in Hong Kong

Credit: AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File

Mr Hui told The Daily Telegraph that one of the factors in his decision to leave was because Nathan Law, another high-profile self-exiled activist, is among a number already lobbying for Hong Kong from Britain.

He says he chose Australia because of the lack of political representation in the country. Mr Hui is the first Hong Kong politician to be granted travel immunity by the Australian government.

“Australia probably is one of the largest Hong Konger communities, right after Canada. They also need a political figure to do these types of things,” Mr Hui said.

The Hong Kong activist is with his wife, two children and parents.

Mr Hui is lobbying for the Magnitsky Act to pass in Australia, a tool to place sanctions on foreign officials, and for Australia to be less reliant on trade with Beijing.

Beijing has been engaged in an escalating diplomatic row with Canberra, and Mr Hui, who is on a visitor visa, believes China may kick back against Australia for allowing him into the country.

“I haven’t sought any asylum status here. It’s not that sensitive legally at the moment, but it can potentially become diplomatic,” he says. 

His arrival in Australia comes a week after 47 pro-democracy opposition figures faced charges for conspiracy to commit subversion under Hong Kong’s national security law. 

The charges are against candidates holding “primary” elections ahead of the now-postponed Legislative Council elections in 2020, and the majority of the defendants have been denied bail.  

Mr Hui said last week he was “heartbroken” at the case and said he would be with them had he not fled Hong Kong.

“I one of the participants and actually one of the winners in the primaries. So definitely I would be among the list, I would be number 48, and under detention, definitely,” Mr Hui said.