Decoding China: Agnes Chow, an enemy of the State?

B Dang Yuan

WASHINGTON: John Lee, Hong Kong’s chief executive, served as a police officer in the city for over three decades before entering into politics. During his various stints as a senior official in charge of the territory’s security, Lee won the trust of the central government in Beijing and, with its approval, ascended in July 2022 to the post of chief executive, the official title of the head of government of the Chinese Special Administrative Region.

Lee is now personally devoting his attention to an ongoing investigation into pro-democracy activist Agnes Chow. “Unless she surrenders, she will be hunted for life,” he said. The announcement immediately received the backing of Beijing.

“We support every effort by the Hong Kong administration and judiciary to fulfil their legal duties and apprehend the suspect,” Wang Wenbin, a Chinese government spokesperson, said on Wednesday.

Chow celebrated her 27th birthday last weekend, not in her hometown of Hong Kong, but in the Canadian city of Toronto. She has been studying there since September 2023 and recently announced on Instagram that she would not be returning to Hong Kong to face criminal proceedings.

“Freedom without fear is priceless,” the student wrote.

“The future is uncertain, but I don’t have to worry about being arrested. I can say and do what I want.” Chow is facing numerous criminal proceedings in Hong Kong, on accusations ranging from endangering state security to undermining the principle of “one country, two systems,” which was agreed when Hong Kong returned from British to Chinese rule in 1997.

Under the framework, Hong Kong would keep some autonomy and freedoms, as well as a separate and independent judiciary, for 50 years following the handover. Safeguarding this special political arrangement was Chow’s primary concern.

“It seems that the governments in Beijing and Hong Kong were not prepared for this step. They are now trying to use Chow as a precedent to intimidate others,” said Sophie Reis, China expert at the Berlin-based research institute MERICS.

Chow became politically active when she was 17, during the so-called Umbrella Revolution in 2014. As a secondary school student representative, she took to the streets protesting a decision by Beijing to allow only candidates vetted by the Chinese government to participate in the city’s elections.

The demonstrators called for genuine democracy in Hong Kong by reforming the electoral system and holding direct elections, as stipulated in the territory’s Basic Law, even though it does not specify the exact time frame for direct elections. The mass protests, however, failed to get Beijing to change its policy.

In 2016, a new party called “Demosisto” was founded in Hong Kong by young activists in the pro-democracy camp.

Chow was then 20 years old and became the newly formed outfit’s deputy general secretary. Demosisto was not just a protest party, it adopted a wide-ranging program to fight poverty and promote equality, as well as introduce taxes on vacant apartments and a direct vote to elect the chief executive.

At the beginning of 2018, Chow contested in the by-elections for the Hong Kong Legislative Council (LegCo), which is the territory’s legislature.

The by-elections became necessary because Beijing had expelled six democratically elected representatives for deliberately falsifying the oath of office and thus allegedly not swearing allegiance to China.