Hong Kong’s first political asylum seekers

Hong Kong’s freedoms, autonomy and rule of law face ever-increasing threats, but there is a twin set of legal dangers that pose the most serious risks for the city’s way of life: an old colonial law that needs reform, and a new law that should never be introduced.

Last week, two Hong Kong activists, Ray Wong and Alan Li, announced that Germany had granted them political asylum – the first ever asylum seekers from Hong Kong. For a city that has for decades been a destination for refugees fleeing mainland China, Vietnam, Pakistan and other parts of the world to be producing its own asylum seekers is a sign of just how bad the situation has become.

These two young Hong Kongers fled their city to escape prosecution.The pair had been charged with rioting offences under the Public Order Ordinance for their involvement in civil unrest in 2016. The punitive way in which the Public