My father’s conviction is Beijing’s litmus test for Washington: Will the U.S. stand firm in favor of freedom?
My father’s conviction is Beijing’s litmus test for Washington: Will the U.S. stand firm in favor of freedom?
T his week, my 68-year-old father was convicted and remanded in custody in Hong Kong, simply for being my father. This is the first time the Hong Kong government is convicting family to repress overseas voices.
Blood ties have become a crime.
I am an exiled activist based in the U.S., wanted by Hong Kong police with a HK$1 million bounty for my work to bring democracy to the country, and yet it is my father who has become the first person convicted under Hong Kong’s Article 23, the latest expansion of the national security law. He is being punished solely for the fact that he is related to me, an officially designated “absconder.”
This is the latest retaliation the Hong Kong government has waged against me in its years of transnational repression.
Last May, Hong Kong authorities arrested my father and brother based on fabricated charges. My father was then detained and later prosecuted for “attempting to deal with, directly or indirectly, any funds or other financial assets or economic resources belonging to, or owned or controlled by, a relevant absconder.” After spending weeks in detention, he was then granted bail on appeal with the condition that no direct or indirect contact with me was allowed.
Since contact was not allowed, I could only gather information about the case through news reports. From the news I scraped together, the charge was based on his attempts to terminate an insurance policy by the AIA Group my father purchased in 1999, when I was a two-year-old learning to say “papa.”
Months of legal proceedings ensued about the technical details of insurance policies. Witnesses gave contradicting testimonies. Outside the court, there was a media deluge of fabricated stories about me being a trained spy, betraying my family, and begging people for money — these abhorrent lies were told everywhere with the intention to weaken my family, to silence me, and to discredit the international advocacy community we have built for Hong Kong in exile.
Transnational repression has always been the Chinese government’s specialty and is becoming the Hong Kong government’s stock-in-trade. They are taking my father hostage to stop me from my policy advocacy. They are making an example out of my family to discourage Hong Kongers, or anyone who dares to stand against the Chinese Communist Party, from making changes.
At the same time, they are testing whether the U.S. would respond to a U.S.-based activist being threatened and silenced.
I first arrived in the United States in 2016 for college. My activism for Hong Kong and its freedoms only began to take shape upon living here: It began with my organizing of campus protests against the Chinese Communist Party. Then, I started organizing online netizens behind an anonymous identity when I was holed up in a New York apartment in the summer of 2019. Americans across the country saw full-page newspaper ads we put up urging that the world “Stand with Hong Kong.” As Hong Kong faced an irreversible crackdown from China, I moved to Washington in 2021 to expand my advocacy work and ultimately decided to speak publicly against Hong Kong’s National Security Law; passed in 2020, the law made it a crime to speak out against the current regime.
In 2024, alongside fellow advocates on Capitol Hill, I championed the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office (HKETO) Certification Act, which seeks to remove the Hong Kong government’s outposts on American soil — outposts used for foreign influence and transnational repression. As the bill worked its way through Congress, the Hong Kong government watched closely and issued statements to oppose the bill. Sometimes, they also staged “protesters” outside the U.S. consulate in Hong Kong to signal their dissent.
All these moments of activism happened on American soil, in a country where I am free to exercise my right to speak up. Nevertheless, the Hong Kong government placed a HK$1 million bounty on my head for “foreign collusion” in 2023, and I received death threats and had to dodge attacks and stalking from aggressive pro-CCP supporters the same year on the streets of San Francisco.
So when my father was arrested last year, it was difficult not to think of these linkages and wonder: Was this a response to my advocacy on the HKETO bill? Or maybe a reaction to Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s sanctions that were rooted in growing transnational repression against Hong Kongers?
This week’s development has told me the answer goes even deeper.
Earlier this week, media tycoon Jimmy Lai was given a de facto life sentence for speaking to Americans and the international community about the plight of Hong Kong. Like they did with me, Hong Kong accused him of “foreign collusion.” On Tuesday, Beijing issued a new policy paper that doubled down on the national security framework that narrates Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement as a product of foreign interference. And on Wednesday, my dad’s verdict displayed the punishment they would take against people who dare to speak to the U.S. government. There is a growingly coherent, consistent attempt to frame the story of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement as one of foreign collusion with countries like the United States, taking away the agency of our freedom-loving people.
The message is threateningly clear.
Beijing is, in fact, sending a litmus test over to see how Washington will respond — will the White House and Congress allow Beijing to amp up its repression in Hong Kong, or will the U.S. stand firm and strong to protect its values? This attempt comes right as the trip between President Trump and Xi Jinping is confirmed for April.
In 2023, when Xi visited San Francisco for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings, President Biden allowed this repression to take place on American soil, resulting in 34 documented cases of harassment and assaults. This time, as President Trump is set to visit China, it is crucial for the president and Congress to set the bottom line and rules of engagement. The U.S. will be perceived as weak by Xi if no response is taken and eyes are turned away. As much as human rights advocacy is often siloed, Xi has always perceived the tug of war on political prisoners and repression to be part of the power play. I urge President Trump to demand the release of my father, Jimmy Lai, and other political prisoners in Hong Kong.
More than ever, Congress plays a significant role in sending the right signal to the Chinese government: Will Congress let this week of provocation and assault slide, or will Congress respond with strength and determination? I urge Congress to pass the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office Certification Act to send a clear message: Transnational repression cannot happen on American soil.
America has witnessed my activism; now, will America march on with our advocacy?