Agnes Chow jumps bail and seek asylum in Canada in self-imposed exile

One of the most prominent pro-democracy activists, who moved to Canada to pursue further studies, said she would not return to the city to meet her bail conditions, becoming the latest politician to flee Hong Kong under Beijing's crackdown on dissidents.

Agnes Chow Ting, 27 - a core member of a now-disbanded group of younger activists, including Joshua Wong Chi-fung, who helped drive Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement - said on her Instagram account late on Sunday that she had left Hong Kong.

Their group, Demosisto, dissolved hours after Beijing passed a sweeping national security law in 2020.   

The law has stifled the pro-democracy movement and led to more than 280 arrests, drawing criticism from some Western governments that the legislation is a tool of repression.   

Beijing says the law has brought stability to Hong Kong after mass pro-democracy protests in 2019.   

Chow’s posts - her first public comments since her release from prison in June 2021 - detailed how she had remained under “supervision” from the authorities.

In an interview with TV Tokyo on Monday, Chow said she was considering seeking asylum in Canada.

She stated that she had been unable to do anything in Hong Kong for the previous three years concerning her physical and mental well-being.

Chow said it was as if the police wanted to remind her that she hadn’t regained her freedom and to “not try to do anything.” She said the pressures led her to be diagnosed with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.   

“Several emotional illnesses put my body and mind in a very unstable state,” she added.

Chow, who arrived in Canada in September, could not be reached for comment.

Chow was sentenced to 10 months in jail in Nov 2020 over an unauthorized assembly charge. She was later released on bail on the condition she checked in with police regularly, and her passport was confiscated as she faced an alleged national security charge, along with others, including pro-democracy businessman Jimmy Lai Chee-ying.

Police condemned Chow’s “irresponsible behaviors that blatantly challenge law and order” and urged her not to be a fugitive for the rest of her life.   

Chow said it was only in August, after she was accepted by a university in Toronto, that the police agreed to return her passport if she traveled to the Chinese city of Shenzhen.  

The trip included visits to Chinese tech major Tencent and a “patriotic” exhibition on China’s achievements. 

“I was forced to go to mainland China in exchange for the opportunity to study abroad,” she wrote.   

Chow was due to report to Hong Kong’s security police this month but decided not to return out of consideration for her personal safety and well-being. “Maybe I won’t return for the rest of my life,” she wrote.   

(Staff reporter / Reuters)

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