Prior to the British government handing over Hong Kong in 1997, China pledged to maintain Hong Kong’s autonomy and freedom under a framework known as “one country, two systems” for 50 years. However, it didn’t take long for China to break its promise as Beijing under Xi Jingping’s leadership has taken increasingly blatant steps to crackdown on the people of Hong Kong, their political system and freedom. In 2020, Beijing imposed a sweeping and draconian National Security Law (NSL) on Hong Kong. Since then, authorities have arrested dozens of pro-democracy activists, lawmakers, and journalists; curbed voting rights; and limited freedoms of the press and speech.

Asia Freedom Institute brings together a panel of Hong Kong leaders and experts from three continents – Europe, Asia, and North America – and they will offer their perspective on the challenges and potential solutions for defending democracy in Hong Kong. They will discuss the erosion of Hong Kong’s freedoms, challenges facing Hong Kong, the state of the Hong Kong democracy movement, the role of Hong Kong’s expatriate and diaspora community, and the future of Hong Kong.

Date: Friday, December 27, 2024
Time: 08:30 am (Washington DC). 1:30 pm (London). 7:00 pm (New Delhi)
Event Type: Virtual (YouTube, Facebook and LinkedIn)

Participants:

Moderator:
Sakina Batt
Host, Freedom Hour, AFI

Live Video Podcast Links:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AsiaFreedomInstitute/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AsiaFreedomInstitute/streams
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/asia-freedom-institute/

Biographies of participants:

Carmen Lau
Carmen Lau is the Senior International Advocacy Associate at the Hong Kong Democracy Council. She was formerly an elected District Councillor and the Deputy Secretary-General for the now-dissolved Civic Party, the second-largest pro-democratic party in Hong Kong. She was forced to resign by the government in 2021 and later fled to the UK. Carmen has been wanted in Hong Kong for “blank votes incitement” since the 2021 Legislative Council elections. In the UK, Carmen founded the Hong Kong March, an annual nation-wide cultural month, and led the Vote for Hong Kong 2024 campaign, leveraging exiled Hong Kongers’ political influence. She also serves on the Leadership Council of the World Liberty Congress.

Amy Siu
Amy Siu is a member of the Advocacy Committee of the European Hong Kong Diaspora Alliance (EHKDA), representing the organization Freiheit für Hongkong based in Germany. In addition to her job as a university professor in computer science, Amy Siu is a committed activist. She was born and raised in Hong Kong. She has lived in Germany since 2010. Siu is active in various grassroots organizations of the Hong Kong democracy movement in Germany. As a Hong Konger living abroad, she believes it is her duty to continually support those who are persecuted for their quest for freedom and democracy. The EHKDA is a coalition of grassroots organizations across Europe, dedicated to advocating for the rights and interests of the Hong Kong diaspora, promoting cultural preservation, and fostering community among Hongkongers in Europe.

Joey Siu
Joey Siu is a Hong Kong democracy and human rights advocate. In 2019, she played a vital role during Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests as a student leader. She organized on-campus and city-wide protests and co-founded a student coalition that focused on international advocacy efforts for Hong Kong.
In 2020, she fled Hong Kong under mounting political pressure and resettled in Washington, D.C. In exile, she served at various human rights organizations and organized successful cross-movement initiatives, including the #NoBeijing2022 campaign. Currently, she serves on the Executive Council of the World Liberty Congress, a global network that brings together over 200 human rights defenders from across the world. On top of her grassroots organizing and diaspora-building initiatives, she engages actively in the policy advocacy space, testifying frequently before the U.S. Congress, the Canadian Parliament, and other policy-making bodies.
In December 2023, the authorities in Hong Kong issued an international arrest warrant for her, with a bounty of HKD $1 million. They cited her activism as a violation of the city’s draconian National Security Law.

Athena Tong
Athena Tong is an international advocacy expert and academic researcher specialising in PRC influence, human rights diplomacy and Hong Kong’s political landscape. Currently a Visiting Researcher at the University of Tokyo and a Programme Lead at the think tank China Strategic Risks Institute (CSRI), she has been advocating for Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement internationally since 2015. Previously, Tong served as Director of Communications and Public Relations for Demosistō, where she developed extensive experience in international advocacy. Before and during the 2019 pro-democracy movement, she worked closely with civil society groups, including Hong Kong Civil Hub and China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group, advocating for democratic freedoms. Drawing on her multilingual capabilities in English, Mandarin, French, Italian, Japanese and other languages, Tong has been amplifying Hong Kong’s democratic struggle on international platforms. At CSRI and UTokyo, she continues to research the PRC’s information operations, cognitive warfare, and economic coercion.

Sakina Batt
Sakina Batt is a Producer and Director at Meeting Point, a leading audio-visual production house and buying agency in Nepal and host of Freedom Hour, an initiative of the Asia Freedom Institute. She directs promotional videos, does voice overs, writes scripts and copywriting for the videos in Meeting Point. Sakina worked for Tibet TV at the Central Tibetan Administration in India for four years (2017-2021) where she served as a news presenter and an interview host. She also made short documentaries for the channel, wrote scripts, conducted research, edited videos and anchored the show In Conversation with Tibet TV. Sakina has a Masters in Mass Communication from Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi and a bachelors from Delhi University.