Hong Kong residents flee to the UK as China clamps down on protests

• China is clamping down on pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong with a new national security law that threatens protesters with life imprisonment.
• Now, many Hong Kong residents are looking to flee to the UK.
• But even after leaving Hong Kong, some activists are finding their troubles are just beginning.
• View more episodes of Business Insider Weekly on Facebook.

London has become a hub for pro-democracy activists fleeing Hong Kong.

In recent months, as Beijing began a crackdown on protests and free speech, thousands have either fled the former British colony — or are looking for an exit. 

Simon Cheng arrived last December after he was arrested and, according to him, tortured by Chinese police.

Cheng took part in peaceful protests in Hong Kong, but his name is now on China’s most wanted list. So it’s on the streets of London that he continues his campaign for free speech and democracy.

“We need to stand together because we are now seeing Hong Kong’s human rights situation getting worse and worse,” Cheng said to a crowd at a recent protest in central London.

“We don’t have any power, but we have a voice.”

China’s national security law threatens dissenters with life in prison.

Beijing’s new national security law clamps down on any sign of dissent. The maximum penalty is now life imprisonment.

Cheng is currently seeking political asylum in the UK. While he feels safer than he did in Hong Kong, he is convinced he’s still being watched by Chinese agents.

“Even that day that I heard I was on the wanted list, I also have been monitored in Whitehall in central London,” he told Business Insider Weekly.

Back in Hong Kong, Cheng worked for the British consulate. Like most of his friends, he supported the peaceful pro-democracy movement.

But last year, on a business trip to mainland China, he was arrested and put in solitary confinement, where he says he was tortured for 15 days.

“Sometimes they would ask me to stand still for countless hours. I was not allowed to sleep. Once I moved a bit and I would be beaten,” Cheng said. “One of the punishments is that they would make me sing the Chinese national anthem. They said that would wake me up.”

It did wake him up, but not in the way the Chinese authorities intended. Cheng is now one of the most prominent faces of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement.

Hong Kong residents are applying for visas to leave the country in unprecedented numbers.

It’s not just activists trying to get out. Hong Kong residents are increasingly looking to leave the island, with requests for visa application documents leaping by 40% from 2018 to 2019, according to The Economist.

And a recent poll by the Chinese University of Hong Kong found that 42.3% of young adults were considering leaving,…