CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Jeffrey Ngo, with the Hong Kong Democracy Council, said he fled Hong Kong after the Chinese Communist Party enacted its National Security Law in 2020 to quell protests.
“For someone like me, and the other activists doing similar kinds of work here in the United States and all around the world, if we were to return to Hong Kong, we would quite likely be immediately arrested at the airport,” Ngo said.
Ngo was among refugees from Tibet and Hong Kong, as well as members of the local Ukrainian community who stood in solidarity with a global protest against China’s treatment of Hong Kong in downtown Chicago Saturday.
He said that his work to shed light outside of Hong Kong on human rights violations there, is punishable with life imprisonment.
“I, and a lot of activists from Hong Kong, have been for years … engaging with policy makers, including, for example, in Congress, in the State Department, Department of Homeland Security, etcetera, to advance our cause for Hong Kong’s human rights,” Ngo said. “In the view of the Chinese government, this is an example of collusion with foreign powers.”
Kel Sang was 9 months old when his mother fled Chinese occupied Tibet in 1959. She carried him walking from Tibet to India. In 1993 he arrived in the United States as a refugee and has since become a US Citizen.
“For almost 60 years, you know, my entire life, living in exile,” Sang said. "If they want to give me a visa, I want to see, at least, where I was born. I have never had experience ... where I was born."
Of his attempts to return to Tibet, Sang said he's been denied even a tourist visa.
"They just lock up easily, torture easily, and this has [been] happening up to now, almost 60 years," he said.
Sang warned that what has happened in Tibet, could easily happen in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Ukraine under Russia’s invasion. He pointed to those scenarios and added that it could become easier for similar situations to play out around the world.
Ngo said that most of the resistance against the Chinese government concerning human rights abuses has to come from abroad from exiles and those who will listen — because the statement can not be made from home.
Related
Related
Listen to WBBM Newsradio now on Audacy!