Benedict Rogers: Save the 12 Hongkongers in jail in China

Exactly three years ago, on  October 11, 2017, I was denied entry to Hong Kong.

I will never forget the look of fear on the face of the young immigration officer as she typed my name into the computer and the computer spoke Beijing’s mind.

I will never forget the group of up to a dozen immigration officers who marched me to the plane – and asking, with a chuckle, the senior officer whether they were all there just for me.

I will never forget the hint of tears in the eyes of the officer who put me back on the plane, as I asked him if this signalled the death of “one country, two systems”.

Nor will I ever forget the maelstrom that the incident provoked – non-stop calls from major media from around the world, invitations to the BBC as soon as I landed back in London, and a statement from the then British Foreign Secretary – now Prime Minister – Boris Johnson expressing concern.

The issue was raised several times in both Houses of Parliament, and the Foreign Office summoned the Chinese ambassador. Beijing in turn summoned British diplomats in order to lodge a complaint at the fact that Britain had had the temerity to complain.

For a few days, I was at the centre of a diplomatic, political and media storm.

I was shocked and saddened that the city that had once been my home for five years, where I had begun my working career as a young fresh graduate just after the handover in 1997, was now forbidden territory for me. When I left Hong Kong in 2002 I was two years short of being eligible to be a permanent resident. Suddenly, I became persona non grata.

But as I made very clear in all my interviews and comments at the time, I never wanted to be the story. Of course I would have preferred to have been allowed in to Hong Kong quietly, to meet old friends and make new ones – and had that happened, few people would ever have heard of me. I might have written an op-ed or a report which few people would have read, and otherwise life may have continued as before.

Instead, banning me from visiting Hong Kong only served to draw international attention to the situation. Given Beijing’s decision I was determined to use my experience for good, to shine a spotlight onto the erosion of Hong Kong’s autonomy and freedoms. When Parliamentarians in both Houses of Parliament proposed to raise my case, I urged them not to make it an issue about me, but rather to use my experience as a way of focusing on the wider threats to Hong Kong’s freedoms.

Within hours of returning to London, the former leader of the Liberal Democrats Paddy Ashdown telephoned me, and asked to meet. When we met a few days later, he said: “Since they won’t let you into Hong Kong, why don’t I try to go instead?”

Within a few weeks he was on a flight to Hong Kong, where he gave a talk at the Foreign Correspondents Club, met key activists and compiled a report which Carrie Lam denounced as “interfering in Hong Kong’s internal affairs”. Once again, the regime inadvertently helped draw attention to the report, which resulted in a debate in the House of Lords.

Together with friends, I co-founded and launched Hong Kong Watch, which I now work with full-time.

Yet even though I saw my denial of entry as a warning sign of worse to come, I never imagined how rapidly, dramatically or seriously the situation would deteriorate.

Denying entry to foreign activists or journalists – a newsworthy story three years ago – has become par for the course. A long line of people who have had the same experience follows mine – most particularly the expulsion of Financial Times Asia News Editor Victor Mallet, and the denial of entry of Human Rights Watch’s Executive Director Kenneth Roth, war correspondent Michael Yon, Japanese politician Kenichiro Wada and academic Dan Garrett, to name just a few.

But that’s nothing by comparison with what has happened to Hongkongers. Police brutality, arrests, imprisonment, disappearances, reports of rape, harassment, assaults on press freedom and threats to academic and religious freedom.

When I was denied entry to Hong Kong, I could foresee further erosion of Hong Kong’s freedoms ahead. But three things I never would have predicted, especially not within three years.

First, the imposition by Beijing, without any consultation with Hong Kong’s institutions, within one month of being announced, with absolutely no scrutiny, transparency or debate, of a national security law that would tear apart Hong Kong’s remaining freedoms and autonomy, flagrantly violate an international treaty and plunge the city into a new, terrifying climate of fear.

Second, the escape of young Hong Kong activists to the United Kingdom, many abandoning families and studies and facing an uncertain future. Last week I travelled to Manchester, to speak at a demonstration for Hong Kong on October 1 and to meet newly arrived Hongkongers now facing urgent questions about how to survive in Britain. As one of them told me: “I won’t go back to Hong Kong until the Chinese Communist Party falls.”

And third, the idea that 12 young Hongkongers would feel so desperate that they would risk their lives in a ramshackle boat across some of the world’s most perilous waters in the hope of escaping to Taiwan – and end up being arrested and imprisoned in mainland China by the Chinese authorities.

As I stood in Manchester’s Piccadilly Gardens last week, I looked out across the square that was filled with Hongkongers chanting slogans and carrying beautiful hand-made lanterns. In the centre of the square was a large beautiful bamboo boat made by an artist, filled with lights, with the words “Save 12 Hong Kong Youths” emblazoned on it.

We must do everything we possibly can now to draw the world’s attention to the plight of the 12 in jail in Shenzhen. We must mobilize the world to insist they receive access to due process, medical care, their own legal representation, contact with their families, and ultimately their release and safe return to Hong Kong. Only by keeping up the pressure can we stand a chance of protecting their well-being and ensuring they are not mistreated.

Three years ago, I was locked out of Hong Kong. But today, if I mark the anniversary of my experience in any way, it is by focusing my thoughts on the 12 who are locked up in China – and the many in jail or facing prosecution in Hong Kong – and those who have been forced to embark on a new, uncertain life of exile in Britain and beyond.

My experience three years ago is insignificant and negligible by comparison with what has followed for Hongkongers, but it perhaps helped mark the beginning of the first flickers of a global spotlight on Hong Kong.

Our task now – for those of us in the free world – is to keep that spotlight on Hong Kong and mobilize the world’s democracies to co-ordinate and intensify efforts to press the Chinese regime to stop its strangulation of Hong Kong’s autonomy and way of life.

Our aim should not be for people to flee Hong Kong. That should be a last resort. But recognizing that for some that is already a reality and a necessity, we also need to ensure that those who do need to escape Hong Kong receive a warm welcome in the free world. I know that I am no longer welcome in Hong Kong – under the current regime – but I’ll do everything I can to ensure that Hongkongers who need to come here are welcome in Britain and beyond.

As I said in Manchester last week, “Hong Kong was once my home and although I do not live there anymore, and I cannot go there anymore, until it is free, Hong Kong will always live on in my heart.”

Let’s hope – for all of us – the day when it is free again comes soon.

Benedict Rogers is the Co-founder and Chief Executive of Hong Kong Watch. The article was published in Apple Daily on 9 October 2020. (Photo: Twitter @KokdamonLam)