Discreet help for Hong Kongers
Bobbing off the coast in a Zodiac speedboat scrubbed of identifying features, Kenny and four others waited nervously for the last leg of their desperate, 560-kilometre journey.
The five had been arrested months earlier on the front lines of demonstrations in Hong Kong. They had escaped across the South China Sea, steering towards Taiwan with just some snacks, identification and a satellite phone. Now came the final hurdle: convincing the approaching Taiwanese Coast Guard – and the government – not to turn them back.
The Taiwanese authorities brought the five ashore, housed them in a government complex, and provided clothing, cigarettes, TV, table tennis games – even English teachers. Eventually, the Taiwanese, who treated the presence of the five as a state secret, helped to arrange flights to the United States, their new home.
The experience of the five, as recounted by Kenny – a 26-yearold civil engineer who wanted to be identified only by his first name – as well as Taiwanese and Western officials and activists, shows the lengths to which selfruled Taiwan has gone to protect and help fleeing Hong Kong protesters.
As Beijing tightens the noose around Hong Kong’s democracy movement, Taiwan has emerged as a key destination for those escaping the dragnet – just as Hong Kong offered sanctuary for dissidents from mainland China in the 20th century.
The influx of Hong Kongers has forced a balancing act on Taiwanese President Tsai Ingwen, who is wary of provoking a Chinese government that often threatens to absorb Taiwan by force.
Her policy has been defined by discretion. Thousands of whitecollar Hong Kongers, entrepreneurs and students have been openly welcomed. Dozens of sensitive cases, including those who arrived by boat or landed at Taiwan’s largest airport without visas, have been quietly ushered in but are watched by government minders and barred from social media. High-profile activists who might use Taiwan as a base for anti-Communist Party advocacy are quickly moved on to
Western countries such as the US, Britain and Canada.
In 2020, Hong Kong’s population fell for the first time in nearly two decades. From 2019 through March 2021, more than 19,000 Hong Kong residents came to Taiwan and acquired residence permits, with 3620 receiving permanent residency.
Today, a mishmash of Hong Kongers are settling, sometimes uneasily, into a new home that is close in culture, language and geography, yet a world apart in political freedoms and safety.
Thomas, a soft-spoken man in his 40s, recalled his journey from the summer of 2019, when he hurled molotov cocktails and fought police in Hong Kong, to his fresh start in central Taiwan.
In June 2020, as China was pushing through a national security law for Hong Kong, Thomas found information on Facebook about Taiwanese trade schools that offered visas. He paid US$2500 (NZ$3400) in tuition for a cooking course, said goodbye to his wife and cats, and arrived on a flight with 21 other Hong Kongers with the same idea.
Today, he lives penniless and alone in a student dormitory, and survives on about US$10 a week donated by Taiwan’s Hong Kong expatriate community. He felt wracked by severe depression and guilt, he said, but was also thankful for a chance to start over.
Thomas recently received permission to work in Taiwan. He hopes to bring his wife over – and, he added bitterly, put the doomed struggle against the Communist Party behind him.
‘‘Those who can have fled, or they’ve been captured,’’ he said, shaking. ‘‘At the time we had said we would struggle till the end, but ultimately, I fled.’’
Freddy Lim, a Taiwanese legislator who works with Tsai’s administration to vet and bring in Hong Kong exiles and artists, said Taiwan’s government had let in a trickle of Chinese dissidents for decades, but it had never seen such an influx.
‘‘The biggest concern is China accusing us of being a safe haven for dissidents,’’ Lim said. ‘‘Will China use this as an excuse to attack Taiwan?’’
In August, Hong Kong and Chinese authorities intercepted a Taiwan-bound boat carrying 12 protesters, effectively shutting the sea route.
‘‘Will China use this as an excuse to attack Taiwan?’’ Freddy Lim, Taiwanese politician