Hong Kong Dissident Denied Bail While Detained in US

The Great Translation Movement's logo combines Kanagawa-oki Nami Ura, the logo of the Reddit subgroup ChonglangTV, which initiated the movement, with the Ukrainian flag, which represents the cause of the movement. (Credit to TGTM)

Yuen Hong Tam, a young activist from Hong Kong who works as a volunteer editor for The Great Translation Movement (TGTM), has been denied bail by a U.S. judge after being detained upon applying for refugee status at San Francisco International Airport.

Mr. Tam arrived in San Francisco on March 29 with a tourist visa and claimed asylum during the entry check. He was then detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and sent to the Golden State Annex detention center.

On July 9, an immigration judge announced that the immigration court had no power to conduct a bond hearing for Mr. Tam as he was an “arriving alien,” meaning he did not cross the border illegally. He is going to a master hearing on July 24, represented by pro-democracy lawyer Cunzhu Zheng. Funds to cover the lawyer fee were raised by Hong Kong groups.

Mr. Tam was one of the editors for TGTM, which emerged online in 2022 during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and translated Chinese Communist Party (CCP) state media’s content and nationalist comments into English and other languages in their original form.

Following news of his continuing dentition, TGTM issued a statement on X calling for his release.

“We are deeply concerned for his well-being and call for his immediate release from ICE,” the July 13 statement reads.

TGTM wrote that it “will always be appreciative” of Mr. Tam’s “translated works of caricatures satirising the CCP regime’s repression of Hong Kong and his cooperation with Chinese editors to expose the hypocrisy of totalitarian propaganda.”

“His name and identity have been made public and he is vulnerable to being hunted by the CCP under the pretext of the Law on Safeguarding National Security,” TGTM wrote.

Fragile Bard, an activist friend of Mr. Tam who was exiled from Hong Kong and arrived in the United States when he was 16, wrote a letter to U.S. politicians seeking help, using a pseudonym because of security concerns.

“[Mr. Tam] is from Hong Kong, under the brutal rule of the Chinese Communist Party. He voluntarily put himself at risk to defend democratic values and to warn free countries including the United States of the coming, unknown danger. He protected America’s national security interests without getting paid,” the exiled Hongkonger wrote.

The letter was sent to House Reps. Michelle Steel (R-Calif.), Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), and Ted Lieu (D-Calif.). Among them, only Mr. Steel replied.

“As a Member of the Congressional Executive Commission on China (CECC) and a strong supporter of human rights, I’ve been working with my colleagues to bring awareness to threats posed by the CCP,” the response, seen by The Epoch Times, reads in part.

The Epoch Times reached out to ICE for comment but did not receive a reply by publication time.