Two activists from Hong Kong Watch visited the San Francisco Bay Area on April 5 and, through a community forum held in Fremont, called on the local Hong Kong diaspora to help establish an international coalition of Hongkongers worldwide to fight for a democratic and free future for Hong Kong.
Hong Kong Watch is an international nongovernmental organization (NGO) based in the UK, dedicated to monitoring the state of human rights, freedom, and the rule of law in Hong Kong.
The two visiting pro-democracy advocates were Aileen Calverley, chair of the Board of Trustees of Hong Kong Watch Canada; and Ray Wong, deputy general secretary of the European Hong Kong Diaspora Alliance.
Calverley served as the moderator of the event. She has previously led efforts advocating for the rights of British National Overseas (BNO) passport holders in the UK. She also played a key role in promoting several major Hong Kong-related bills passed by the U.S. Congress in 2019 and 2020, including the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act and the Hong Kong Autonomy Act.
Ray Wong, a well-known activist and founder of the now-defunct localist group Hong Kong Indigenous, was the keynote speaker. He was likely the first Hong Kong activist in history to be granted political asylum by the German government.
Wong said he still holds on to two core beliefs from when he founded Hong Kong Indigenous: First, the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) “one country, two systems” agreement with Hong Kong will never work; and second, “We are Hongkongers, not Chinese,” he said.
He said there is an urgent need for a global coalition of Hongkongers, and if the CCP were to collapse one day, a globally recognized body would be needed to represent Hongkongers’ aspirations to the international community.
Wong also addressed the issue of transnational repression by the CCP. He shared personal accounts of being followed and surveilled by Chinese agents in Europe, highlighting how the CCP has extended its human rights violations beyond China’s borders into Western democracies.
In her remarks, Calverley noted that many international Hong Kong organizations and diaspora communities already exist around the world. She encouraged mutual support and grassroots collaboration to gradually form an internationally recognized body that represents the broader Hong Kong community and advocates for its future.
The April 5 forum was held at the HongKonger Community Center in Fremont and drew nearly 100 Bay Area residents concerned about Hong Kong’s future.
Alex Woo, leader of the community center, shared that one of their ongoing initiatives is to be identified as “Hongkonger” instead of “Chinese” on census forms. He said the group is actively reaching out to elected officials at various levels to advocate for this change.
