Our People

 

UK Patrons

Lord Patten of Barnes served as the 28th and last Governor of Hong Kong from 1992 to 1997 and Chairman of the Conservative Party from 1990 to 1992. He was European Commissioner for External Relations from 2000 to 2004, made a life Peer in 2005 and was Chancellor of the University of Oxford until the end of the 2024 academic year.

Lord Patten of Barnes

Lord Alton of Liverpool is an independent Crossbench life Peer and was once the youngest Member of Parliament. He is a leading voice for human rights around the world.

Lord Alton of Liverpool

Sir Malcolm Rifkind is a former Cabinet Minister under John Major and Margaret Thatcher, serving as Foreign Secretary between 1995 and 1997.

Sir Malcolm Rifkind KCMG KC

Sir Geoffrey Nice is a British barrister. He led the prosecution in the trial of Slobodan Milošević in The Hague and has subsequently worked extensively at the International Criminal Court. He also chairs the China Tribunal and the Uyghur Tribunal.

Sir Geoffrey Nice KC

Fiona Bruce served as the Conservative MP for Congleton from 2010 to 2024, and was previously the UK Prime Minister’s Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief.

Fiona Bruce

Sarah Champion has served as the Labour MP for Rotherham since 2012, and is the Chair of the International Development Committee. She previously served as the Shadow Minister for Preventing Abuse and Domestic Violence and Shadow Secretary of State for Women and Equalities.

Sarah Champion MP

Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws – Helena Kennedy, KC – is one of Britain’s most distinguished lawyers. She is the Director of the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute, and a UK Co-Chair – with Sir Iain Duncan Smith MP – of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC). She has served as Chair of the British Council, Principal of Mansfield College, Oxford, Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University, President of the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London and is currently Chancellor of Sheffield Hallam University. She is the Chair of Justice – the UK section of the International Commission of Jurists – and was appointed to the House of Lords in 1997 as a Labour Party peer.

Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws KC

Alistair Carmichael has served as the Liberal Democrat MP for Orkney and Shetland since 2001. He has previously held multiple spokesperson positions for the Liberal Democrats, and served as the Secretary of State for Scotland from 2013 to 2015.

Alistair Carmichael MP

Canadian Patrons

The Honourable Leo Housakos has served in the Canadian Senate since 2008, and was Speaker of the Senate in 2015. He is currently a member of several Senate committees and is a tireless advocate of human rights both in the chamber and out.

The Honourable Leo Housakos

Former Senator Jim Munson served in the Canadian Senate from 2003 to 2021, and as Whip of the Senate Liberal Caucus and Former Chair of the Senate Human Rights Committee. He was previously a journalist whose reporting covered events around the globe, including covering the Tiananmen Square Massacre in Beijing in 1989. He served in the Prime Minister’s Office as a communications advisor and subsequently Director of Communications from 2001-2003. Senator Munson has also devoted his work in the Senate to advocating for the rights of those with disabilities.

Former Senator Jim Munson

Cathay Wagantall was first elected to the Canadian Parliament in 2015, representing Yorkton-Melville. She has been outspoken in her support of the democracy movement in Hong Kong and has worked closely with Hong Kong Watch to advocate for a lifeboat scheme to help Hong Kongers find sanctuary in Canada.

Cathay Wagantall MP

Garnett Genuis is a Member of the Canadian Parliament and Canada’s Shadow Minister for International Development. He is a tireless champion for human rights.

Garnett Genuis MP

Irwin Cotler served as Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada from 2003-2006 and as a Member of Parliament in Canada from 1999-2015. He is the founder and Chair of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights. As an international human rights lawyer he served as counsel to many former prisoners of conscience including Nelson Mandela in South Africa and Soviet dissidents Natan Sharansky and Andrei Sakharov, among others. He is the recipient of many international awards and honours in recognition of his human rights advocacy, including his appointment as an Officer of the Order of Canada and Officer of the National Order of Quebec.

The Honourable Irwin Cotler

Shuvaloy Majumdar, Member of Parliament for Calgary Heritage, has over 20 years of experience in foreign policy, national security, and international business. He served as a foreign policy advisor to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, led democratic reform efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, and helped build the Canadian conservative movement. Majumdar has also held leadership roles at Harper & Associates and the Macdonald-Laurier Institute. He has received Queen Elizabeth II Golden and Platinum Jubilee Medals for his work on human trafficking and advancing Canadian leadership. In 2023, he was elected to represent Calgary Heritage in the House of Commons.

Shuvaloy Majumdar MP

James Bezan MP has served in the Canadian Parliament since 2004 and is currently Shadow Minister for National Defence and Vice Chair of the Standing Committee on National Defence. He was also the parliamentary sponsor of Canada’s Sergei Magnitsky Law.

James Bezan MP

Melissa Lantsman is Deputy Leader of the Conservative Party in Canada, has served as the Member of Parliament for Thornhill since 2021, and has been a strong supporter of human rights and democracy for Hong Kong.

Melissa Lantsman MP

Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe has been a Bloc Québécois Member of Parliament since 2019 and serves as Vice-Chair of the International Human Rights Subcommittee. In 2021, he presented a resolution at the World Uyghur Congress urging the postponement of the 2022 Winter Olympics in favour of a UN observer mission. He also introduced a motion to study the detention of Jimmy Lai in Hong Kong. Brunelle-Duceppe is a strong advocate for human rights, democracy, and emancipation movements.

Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe MP

International Patrons

Jung-hoon Lee served as the South Korean government’s inaugural Ambassador for North Korean Human Rights, and was also South Korea’s former Ambassador for Human Rights. He is currently professor of international relations at Yonsei University in Seoul.

Jung-hoon Lee

Miriam Lexmann MEP was elected to the European Parliament in 2019. She is from Slovakia, and serves on the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs and as a Co-Chair of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC).

Miriam Lexmann MEP

Ambassador Derek Mitchell is President of the National Democratic Institute. He previously served as US Ambassador to Myanmar (Burma) and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense responsible for Asia-Pacific Affairs under President Barack Obama, and was a Senior Fellow and Director of the Asia Division of the International Security Program at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies. He received the Office of the Secretary of Defense Award for Distinguished Public Service in August 2011.

Ambassador Derek Mitchell

Frank Müller-Rosentritt has been a member of the German Bundestag for the Free Democratic Party (FDP) since 2017. In the Bundestag, Müller-Rosentritt works as a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, where he is the FDP's standing rapporteur for China and Asia, covering South Asia, East Asia and Southeast Asia. In the Foreign Affairs Committee, he is also responsible for foreign trade and international financial institutions. Mr. Müller-Rosentritt is Vice Chairman of the ASEAN Parliamentary Group in the German Bundestag and is also involved in the Parliamentary Group for the Pacific. He is an active member of the Hong Kong Friendship Group and the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC).

Frank Müller-Rosentritt MdB

Ambassador Sam Brownback served as US Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom from 2018 to 2021, Governor of Kansas from 2011 to 2018, United States Senator from 1996 to 2011 and was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 1996. He ran as a candidate for President of the United States in 2008.

Ambassador Sam Brownback

Board of Trustees

Our Board of Trustees consists of five members. The Trustees bring with them a wealth of expertise and experience advising Hong Kong Watch on its strategies and overseeing its financial and operational activities.

Gray Sergeant is currently completing an MPhil/PhD in the Department of International History at the London School of Economics (LSE). His research focuses on Anglo-American diplomatic relations towards the People’s Republic of China during the early Cold War. He previously studied International Relations and History at the LSE before completing a Masters in Chinese Politics at SOAS. He has spent time in Taiwan, first as a Mandarin language student at National Taiwan University and then as a Human Rights and Democracy Fellow at the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy. Currently, he is a Robert Swinhoe Associate Fellow in Chinese Geopolitics at the Council Geostrategy, a London-based foreign policy think tank.

In addition, he spent several years in human rights advocacy, with a specific focus on Tibet. He has written for the Hong Kong Free Press, Taipei Times, Spectator and the Telegraph.

Gray Sergeant, Co-founder and Trustee

Michael Danielsen is the co-founder of Taiwan Corner, established in 2008. He holds a Master of Science in Engineering from the Technical University of Denmark and a Ph.D. in natural science. He has extensive expertise in Taiwan and cross-Strait relations. With a deep commitment to democratic development in Asia, Michael has dedicated many years to writing and speaking on these topics.

Dr Michael Danielsen, Trustee

Aileen Calverley is the co-founder and Trustee of Hong Kong Watch. Aileen grew up in Hong Kong and is a Canadian citizen. She has a background in finance and investment and is focusing on ethical investing (ESG). She is in regular contact with senior diplomats and Parliamentarians in Canada, Germany, the US and the UK, and has spoken at parliamentary hearings on Hong Kong.

Aileen Calverley, Co-founder and Chair of Trustees

Benedict Rogers is the co-founder and Trustee of Hong Kong Watch. Ben launched Hong Kong Watch, together with other co-founders, in Speaker’s House in the British Parliament on 10 December 2017, just two months after he was denied entry to Hong Kong on the orders of Beijing, and served as the Chair of Trustees of Hong Kong Watch from 2017-2020. Before joining Hong Kong Watch as the Chief Executive in September 2020, Ben was the East Asia Team Leader at the international human rights organisation CSW, where he specialised in Myanmar, Indonesia, North Korea and China. He is also the co-founder and Deputy Chair of the Conservative Party Human Rights Commission, a member of the advisory group of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), an advisor to the World Uyghur Congress, Senior Analyst for East Asia at CSW, a trustee of several other charities, author of seven books and a regular contributor to international media. He has testified in hearings in the British Parliament, European Parliament, Japanese Parliament and United States Congress and is a regular speaker around the world. Between 1997 and 2002, he lived and worked as a journalist in Hong Kong, and in 2003 he lived and worked in Washington, DC.

Benedict Rogers, Co-founder and Trustee

Staff

Lotte van Buuren is the Finance and Operations Manager of Hong Kong Watch. She has a background in the UK charity sector, having worked at NCVO, Victim Support and Music as Therapy International. Her studies in Global Governance and Ethics and subsequent role at Westminster think tank Civitas spurred her interest in politics and civil society. Lotte is also a Buddhist and yoga teacher.

Lotte van Buuren, Finance and Operations Manager

Megan Khoo is the Policy Director at Hong Kong Watch, based in London. Prior to joining Hong Kong Watch, Megan served in communications roles at Hong Kong and foreign policy non-profit organisations in London, and at the U.S. Department of Defense and U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, DC. Megan earned her MSc in Contemporary Chinese Studies at the University of Oxford and holds two BAs in International Studies and Modern Languages (Mandarin Chinese and Spanish) from Georgia Southern University. Megan’s interest in China and Hong Kong-related affairs arose after completing her BA in Modern Languages in Southern China in 2019, where she was part of the underground church network and visited Hong Kong multiple times.

Megan Khoo, Policy Director

Thomas Benson is a Research and Policy Advisor at Hong Kong Watch. He holds a BA (Hons) in English and a MSc in China Studies. Professionally fluent in Mandarin, he studied Chinese at National Taiwan University / 國立台灣大學. Prior to joining Hong Kong Watch, Thomas worked as a researcher for the Welcoming Committee for Hong Kongers, where he conducted the UK’s largest research survey of BN(O) Hong Kongers and co-authored a major report into their new lives in the UK. Thomas has also held parliamentary and consular roles, and lived previously in Taiwan and Malaysia.

Thomas Benson, Research and Policy Advisor

Anouk Wear 華穆清 is a Research and Policy Advisor at Hong Kong Watch, based in Washington DC. She is from both Hong Kong and the USA.

After obtaining her BA in Social Anthropology from the University of Cambridge and her LLM in Public International Law from Leiden University, she worked as a professional researcher and translator on topics related to international law and human rights in the China region, including the Uyghur region. Anouk focuses on cultural rights, freedom of expression, digital rights, labor rights, and democracy, and she works in English, French, Cantonese and Mandarin.

Anouk Wear, Research and Policy Advisor (USA)

Katherine Leung is a Policy Advisor of Hong Kong Watch in Canada. She has a background in foreign affairs and previously worked as a parliamentary assistant for a Canadian Member of Parliament who is active on foreign affairs, human rights, and Hong Kong-related issues. She spent her childhood in Hong Kong and now calls Canada home.

Katherine Leung, Policy Advisor (Canada)

Advisory Board

Hong Kong Watch established an Advisory Group in September 2021, to strengthen and enhance our advocacy work around the world. This replaces our previous Fellows Programme, and broadens our international reach. Our Advisors are based in our key advocacy arenas around the world, including Washington, DC, Australia, Europe and the United Kingdom, and include both Hong Kongers and non-Hong Kongers, appointed on the strength of their advocacy expertise and knowledge of Hong Kong, to provide strategic advice and ideas on policy proposals, legislative initiatives and advocacy activities and to facilitate introductions for Hong Kong Watch’s advocacy team to key contacts in legislatures, governments, think-tanks, academia, NGOs and the media. Our Advisory Group works in an entirely voluntary, pro bono way, and its members do not represent or speak for Hong Kong Watch but work in close co-ordination with our advocacy team.

Ted Hui Chi Fung is a Hong Kong politician in exile, having previously served as a member of the Hong Kong Legislative Council for four years (2016 –2020) and the District Council for ten years (2011 –present). Ted’s areas of focus within the legislature included human rights, administration of justice, constitutional affairs, education and environmental affairs.

Ted studied at the University of Toronto and graduated from the City University of Hong Kong with a Bachelor of Laws (Hon.) degree.

During the 2019 Hong Kong anti-extradition movement for freedom, Ted actively participated in the frontline protests as peacemaker, often mediating between riot police and protesters. Having first-hand experience of police brutality and abuses, Ted raised funds from the public and launched private prosecutions and judicial reviews against the police and the Hong Kong government.

In 2020, Ted was arrested and prosecuted for his participation in a protest frontline in 2019. He was then further arrested and prosecuted for his acts of protest and speeches made during parliamentary sessions, with charges such as contempt of legislature and obstructing council security guards.

In December 2020, Ted announced his exile during an official visit in Denmark while on court bail. He subsequently lived in exile in the UK, and then relocated to Australia.

Following the imposition of the National Security Law in Hong Kong in July 2020, Ted has been put on the police wanted list for arrest. Court arrest warrants were also issued against him for absence from trials during his exile. It is anticipated that political charges against him would lead to life imprisonment if Ted returns to Hong Kong.

Ted Hui is one of the initiators of the 2021 Hong Kong Charter. In that historical document, he pledges his life determination to advocate Hong Kong’s freedom and democracy and join hands with the Hong Kong diaspora to revive Hong Kong.

Ted Hui

Ray Wong Toi-yeung is the first activist from Hong Kong granted asylum by a European country. He was the founder of an influential activist group “Hong Kong Indigenous” whose slogan “Liberate Hong Kong, Revolution of Our Times” is one of the most popular slogans throughout the Anti Extradition Law Movement.

Ray Wong

Laura Harth is a political activist for human rights and the rule of law with a focus on China. She is Campaign Director at Safeguard Defenders, and holds M.A.s in international law, human rights and international relations. Laura is among the initiators of a campaign for the universal recognition of the right to know. She regularly contributes to Italian news outlets and previously contributed to the English edition of Hong Kong-based Apple Daily.

Laura Harth

Peter Mattis is an International Senior Fellow with the International Cyber Policy Centre at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI). He joined ASPI from the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) where he served as the Senate-appointed staff director. In addition to his duties with the CECC, he also served as an advisor to Senator Marco Rubio and was a part of the legislative team that passed the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act, and the Tibetan Policy and Support Act. Mr. Mattis previously was a fellow at The Jamestown Foundation, where he also edited the foundation’s biweekly China Brief, and at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. He also worked as an analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency. Mr. Mattis has written and spoken widely about the Chinese Communist Party and PRC politics, foreign policy, internal security, intelligence, and political influence activities. He is the author of Analyzing the Chinese Military: A Review Essay and Resource Guide on the People’s Liberation Army (2015) and co-author of Chinese Communist Espionage: An Intelligence Primer (2019).

Peter Mattis

Dimon Liu has been an activist on human rights since 1972.

In 1989, she initiated an intervention at the UN Sub-Commission on Human Rights, which resulted in an unprecedented UN reprimand against China on human rights abuse. This was documented in “Human Rights Exception No Longer” in The Mirror Cracked: China After Tiananmen; published in 1990.

In 1992, Dimon worked on inserting a clause into the United States Hong Kong Act to protect Hong Kong, which was activated with an amendment in 2019.

In 1993, she organized and represented more than 200 Asian NGOs in a speech against the notion of “Asian values” at the World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna, which protected the concept of the “universality” of human rights.

Dimon initiated the annual People’s Liberation Army Conference at Staunton Hill, Virginia from 1990 to 1998.

Her writings on human rights, the rule of law, democracy, and military strategy have appeared in many publications, including the Asian Wall Street Journal, Newsday, and the Hong Kong Economic Journal. She has written for the Department of Defense, and is the co-editor of the 1996 book, China’s Military Modernization.

Dimon Liu

Luke de Pulford is currently the Executive Director of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China. He was previously the Director of the Arise Foundation, and is co-founder of the Coalition for Genocide Response and a member of the Conservative Party Human Rights Commission.

Luke de Pulford

Stephen Vines, who lived in Hong Kong for 35 years, was a correspondent for several international publications and a regular presenter on Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK), and is the author of Defying the Dragon: Hong Kong and the World’s Largest Dictatorship. In 2021 he left Hong Kong after 35 years, due to the crackdown on freedom of expression and press freedom and fears for his own safety.

Stephen Vines

Johnny Patterson is the co-founder of Hong Kong Watch and was founding Director of the organisation between 2017 and 2020. He has authored a number of Hong Kong Watch’s in-depth reports, including our research on why Hong Kong matters to China as an international financial hub and our report on the abuse of the Public Order Ordinance. He is a regular commentator on Hong Kong in international media, and has been published in The Spectator, The Independent, TIME, The Financial Times and South China Morning Post.

Johnny Patterson

Sam Goodman is the Senior Policy Director at the China Strategic Risks Institute and the Co-chair and Co-founder of the New Diplomacy Project. He previously was the Senior Policy Advisor and the Director of Policy and Advocacy of Hong Kong Watch between 2020 and 2023. Prior to joining Hong Kong Watch, he worked as a political adviser for the Labour Party, a parliamentary aide to several Labour Members of Parliament, and worked in the US House of Representatives for Congressman Bobby L Rush. He is the author of The Imperial Premiership: the role of the modern prime minister in foreign policymaking 1964-2015.

Sam Goodman

In Memoriam: David Kilgour and Paddy Ashdown

David Kilgour was one of Hong Kong Watch’s first International Patrons, and was an energetic and enthusiastic supporter of our work. He had a distinguished career in politics, serving in several senior government ministerial positions including as Canada’s Secretary of State for Asia-Pacific from 2002-2003. He served in the Canadian Parliament for 27 years, before devoting himself as full-time campaigner for international human rights following his retirement from the Canadian Parliament in 2006. David died on 5 April 2022 and is deeply missed by many, including by all of us at Hong Kong Watch.

The Honourable David Kilgour, JD (1941-2022)

Paddy Ashdown was a founding Patron of Hong Kong Watch, and a tireless ally in our advocacy work. In his distinguished political career, Paddy served as Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 1988-1999 and High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2002-2006. He first went to Hong Kong in 1967 to learn Chinese as he served in the Royal Marines’ Special Boat Service (SBS). In 2017, he visited Hong Kong on behalf of Hong Kong Watch and published a report on his findings. He died on 22 December 2018, and is deeply missed by many, including all of us at Hong Kong Watch.

Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon (1941-2018)