Hong Kong Voices
A list of my posts about those who've spoken out while living under repression
Last updated May 10, 2026
Over the course of 2025, I’ve made a conscious effort to post translations of statements by Hong Kongers living under repression. Here, I present a list of those in one place to highlight them and make them easier to find. I will add to the list whenever I post new translations.
The purpose of the effort is to amplify their voices at a time when few Hong Kong voices make it out to the rest of the world. Often when they do, it’s in the form of sound bites in news articles. It’s rare for any voices of people living in Hong Kong to be made accessible to the general English-reading public in more sustained forms.
Many of the most outspoken Hong Kongers—as well as those who are best known and have in the past had the best access to the international media—are in prison, their voices muffled. Many others who’ve stayed in Hong Kong have decided to keep a low profile, the price to pay for remaining. This includes people we used to hear from regularly.
In a situation as repressive and censorious as Hong Kong’s today, people are constantly put in the position of having to make a million calculations before issuing even the most innocuous statements: Is it worth it? How much do I stand to lose? Does the value and/or potential impact of what I have to say outweigh the risks involved? Will it make me a target into the indefinite future? What words, phrases, and references must I avoid? How might my speaking out affect not just myself but also my loved ones, friends, associates and others?
What you find below is far from an exhaustive list. It’s just some of the voices I’ve come across in my on-going monitoring of the situation in Hong Kong that I thought merited a wider readership, especially in the non-Cantonese-speaking, non-Chinese-reading world. The list includes a playwright, a social worker, a former District Councillor, and political prisoners who used to be activists, politicians and leaders of pro-democracy civil society organizations. Some of their statements were made in social media posts, others in interviews, still others were formal mitigation statements submitted in their trials.
The list is in chronological order, from the most recent to the oldest.
Voices of Hong Kongers Living Under Repression
CHOW HANG-TUNG, May 10 2026: Former leader of Hong Kong Alliance, imprisoned since September 2021. This is an open letter of gratitude and resolve that she wrote to Tiananmen Mothers on Mother’s Day, vowing to one day “put the murderers in the docks.”
KOO SZE-YIU, April 9, 2026: Koo died on April 8 at the age of 80. He spent his life protesting. During his last six years, he lived with stage four rectal cancer and was convicted four times for protest-related offenses and sentenced to a total to 27 months in prison. This piece presents many of his words and actions.
CHOW HANG-TUNG, March 20 to 26, 2026: Former leader of Hong Kong Alliance, imprisoned since September 2021. This is a transcript of her five days of testimony at her trial for “inciting subversion” under the 2020 national security law imposed by the CCP.
DENISE HO, March 19, 2026: The pro-democracy singer on being shunned by promoters on the even of the release of her first album in thirteen years, and the reflections that provokes on how to live in the “abnormal place” that Hong Kong has become.
CHOW HANG-TUNG, March 16, 2026: Former leader of Hong Kong Alliance, imprisoned since September 2021. This is her oral statement in her trial for “inciting subversion” under the 2020 national security law imposed by the CCP.
“DAVID,” February 25, 2026: Former political prisoner interviewed by Bonham Tree Aid on the difficulties of life after release from prison, in particular, being rejected for a social worker’s license and struggling to find stable employment.
LESTER SHUM, February 8, 2026: Political prisoner and pro-democracy leader, he was released from prison on January 26. Thirteen days later, he issued his first public statement in years, a translation of which can be found here.
EDDIE CHU HOI-DICK, January 21, 2026: Political prisoner and pro-democracy leader, he was released from prison on January 15. Six days later, he issued his first public statement since January 2022, a translation of which can be found here.
CANDACE CHONG, November 26, 2025: Over the course of three days, from November 23 to 26, the Hong Kong playwright published three posts about her experience of being targeted by a campaign to silence her, culminating in the recent cancellation of a stage production of her play, “We Are Gay.” Links to translations of posts she wrote in September on the same subject, before the play was cancelled, can be found below.
CARMEN LAU, November 17, 2025: This is, up to now, the only post in the Honbg Kong Voices series having to do with a Hong Konger living outside of Hong Kong. That’s because Carmen was first targeted for repression in Hong Kong and then, since going into exile in the UK, targeted for transnational repression. A translation of an interview that appeared in French, it is one of the best interviews I’ve come across of one of the 34 overseas Hong Kongers for whom the Hong Kong national security police have issued arrest warrants and bounties.
“KIM” AND “AH-KEUNG,” November 14, 2025: These two young people took part in the 2019 protests like tens of thousands others. They were arrested in March 2021. After learning of a health condition that could prevent Kim from having children in the future, they decided to get married and have a child while awaiting trial. They were sent to prison in December 2023 and released in September and October 2025, after which they gave the interviews upon which this post is based.
KINDA LI (李嘉達) AND HIS BAND FORWARD, November 6, 2025: Kinda Li is one of the HK47, the pro-democracy politicians and activists imprisoned for taking part in a primary election in 2020. He was released in May 2025 and now has put out a video of an old song he wrote together with his band.
CHEUNG MAN-LUNG (張文龍), October 6, 2025: Cheung was elected to a District Council seat in the pro-democracy landslide victory in November 2019 that turned out to be the last mostly free and fair elections Hong Kong ever had. Like hundreds of other pro-democracy DCs, he was forced to resign in 2021. Recently he became a bus driver in his neighborhood, the one he used to represent on the District Council. This piece is about his journey from DC to bus driver.
“TED,” September 30, 2025: This young recently released young political prisoner speaks of his goals and challenges in post-prison life. In this period, a large number of Hong Kong political prisoners are getting out—155 since the start of 2025, with more to come—, and aiding their transition has become a top priority.
OWEN CHOW (鄒家成), September 24, 2025: Political prisoner Owen Chow’s Patreon account published a post dated February 2025. Owen has over time had several accounts published of his meditations and reflections on books he’s reading in prison. In this, he reads Xavier De Maistre’s 1790 book, Journey Around My Room, mentions that himself has spent three years in solitary confinement, and reflects on solitude as an opportunity for practicing repentance and gratitude.
TAM TAK-CHI (譚得志), September 16, 2025: This is a report, both funny and sad, on a recent prison visit paid to Tam by three secondary school classmates of his. Arrested in September 2020, he’s one of Hong Kong’s longest-serving political prisoners. Tam got a total of 93 months for shouting slogans on the street (“sedition”) and running as a candidate in the July 2020 pro-democracy primary election (“conspiracy to subvert state power”). He’s projected to be released in March 2027.
CANDACE CHONG (莊梅岩), June to September 2025: The well-known and highly regarded playwright spoke out four times about the negative impact on the arts and culture of the Hong Kong government and CCP-owned media’s campaign against “soft resistance,” focusing on how the censorship has directly impacted her work: June 23, September 1, September 3 and September 9.
LEAGUE OF SOCIAL DEMOCRATS (社會民主連線), June 29, 2025: The last active pro-democracy political party issued a statement announcing their disbandment. This piece is mostly about my memories of them but also contains a link to that bilingual statement.
JIMMY SHAM (岑子杰), June 10, 2025: The recently released political prisoner told about his time in prison in an interview. He was among the 45 of the Hong Kong 47 convicted of “conspiracy to subvert state power” for taking part in a pro-democracy primary election in 2020. He was one of the convenors of the now-defunct protest group, Civil Human Rights Front, a leader of the now-defunct pro-democracy party, League of Social Democrats, and a prominent campaigner for LGBT rights.
KATRINA CHAN (陳劍琴), May 19, 2025: The former pro-democracy District Councillor spoke out about her apparent blacklisting and targeting for regular persecution.
CHOW HANG-TUNG (鄒幸彤), April 26, 2025: The political prisoner issued a statement explaining why she decided not to proceed with her legal challenge to being denied certain books in prison. She was once a leader of the now-defunct Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China, which organized the annual June 4 candlelight vigil. She has been in prison for years awaiting trial with two co-defendants on the charge of “subverting state power” under the national security law.
JACKIE CHEN (陳虹秀), April 3, 2025: Mitigation statement of the social worker in her retrial for “riot” during the 2019 mass protests. She was initially acquitted of the charge, but the government successfully appealed, and in her retrial, she was convicted and sentenced to three years and eight months in prison. This translation of an in-depth article about her preparing for prison also provides many statements of hers.
OWEN CHOW (鄒家成), January 31, 2025: This post provides translations of three statements made by the political prisoner published from prison between September 15, 2022 and November 19, 2024. Owen was among the 45 of the Hong Kong 47 convicted of “conspiracy to subvert state power” for taking part in a pro-democracy primary election in 2020. He was also convicted of “riot” during the 2019 protests and is one of Hong Kong’s longest-serving political prisoners, not expected to be released before the early 2030s. The three statements translated all relate to the HK47 trial.
YE DU, January 24, 2025: Political prisoner Chow Hang-tung (鄒幸彤)’s fiance published this homage to her in Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao to mark her 40th birthday.
LAM CHEUK-TING (林卓廷), January 22, 2025: The mitigation statement of the political prisoner following his absurd conviction for “riot” on July 21, 2019 when he was trying to protect ordinary citizens in Yuen Long from indiscriminate attacks carried out by an organized band of pro-CCP thugs. Lam Cheuk-ting was a Legislative Council representative and a member of the Democratic Party. He was also convicted in the trial of the Hong Kong 47 for taking part in a pro-democracy primary election and is one of Hong Kong’s longest-serving political prisoners.
CHOW HANG-TUNG (鄒幸彤), January 8, 2025: The political prisoner issued a statement about the appeal she and two other former standing committee members of the now-defunct Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China launched against their conviction for refusing to share information about the organization with the national security police.
GWYNETH HO (何桂藍), November 18, 2025: The political prisoner issued a statement the day before she and the other 44 convicted in the Hong Kong 47 trial were sentenced. It is one of the most extensive statements by any of those persecuted by the regime. I have not translated it because, of its 39 paragraphs, the first 30 are written in English. Ho was convicted, along with 44 others, of “conspiracy to subvert state power” under the national security law for her participation in the pro-democracy primary election of 2020. Prior to that, she was a reporter for now-defunct Stand News and was beaten by marauding thugs for covering their infamous attacks on citizens at Yuen Long MTR station on July 21, 2019.
CHOW HANG-TUNG (鄒幸彤), 2021: This post about the political prisoner includes excerpts from and links to many of her statements and writings in 2020 and 2021, a time when she (and the rest of Hong Kong) still expressed herself more expansively and freely.
JOSHUA WONG (黃之鋒), November 26, 2020: This is a translation of an interview the political prisoner did with German newspaper, Die Welt, while he was serving a prison sentence for a conviction related to the 2019 protests. This is even before he was charged in the Hong Kong 47 trial with “conspiracy to subvert state power” for taking part in the 2020 pro-democracy primary election. Even more recently, this year, he was charged in prison with “conspiracy to collude with foreign forces” for alleged offenses committed in 2020—a transparent attempt by the regime to hold him in prison indefinitely. Since Joshua decided to plead guilty early on in the HK47 trial, he has not issued public statements.