The exiles: Hong Kong at a crossroads

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 28 January 2021

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Over a year ago, two young men who met over the internet as Hong Kong was gripped by months of pro-democracy protests. They shared a common interest in martial arts and a burning desire to resist China’s tightening grip on their lives. Now in the wake of a sweeping national security law, imposed by Beijing, they need to decide… are they going stay and continue to protest or flee to the United Kingdom, a country offering them a way out. In a move that infuriated China, Britain has introduced a new visa that will give 70% of its former colony’s population – 5.4m people - the right to live in the UK, and eventually become citizens. So what will they decide? Grace Tsoi, Wei Wang and Rebecca Henschke follow their story.

Produced and presented by Rebecca Henschke in London and Grace Tsoi in Hong Kong Sound recordings by Wei Wang Editor: Bridget Harney

(Image: A Hong Kong pro-democracy protestor who has decided to flee to the United Kingdom. Credit: BBC/Wei Wang)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thank you for downloading this podcast from the BBC World Service.
0:04.0	A black flag is pushed into a suitcase packed with clothes and gadgets. At the age of 25 a man we're
0:16.7	calling H is leaving home, going overseas alone, fleeing. I don't want to go.
0:26.0	I was born and raised in Hong Kong.
0:29.0	So I have really mixed feelings, but I have great fears about what will happen if I stay.
0:38.6	His mother quietly says goodbye to her only child.
0:43.0	I'm heartbroken.
0:46.0	He will not be there if anything happens to me.
0:50.0	And I won't be able to take care of him.
0:54.0	I can't make him soup.
0:56.0	I want my son by my sigh,
0:59.0	but there is no other way.
1:01.0	At this point, it's better for him to leave. A friend is taking him to
1:10.5	the airport, a taxi thought to risky.
1:13.6	They drive through the city at night where for over a year H has been involved in
1:21.9	mass protests,
1:23.5	demanding more democracy in Hong Kong
1:25.8	and less Chinese influence,
1:28.4	a movement that ended with the government crackdown
1:31.9	and the arrests of its young leaders.
1:35.0	Last year's mass protests fuelled by fears that China was undermining Hong Kong's freedoms have been stopped by a sweeping national security law.
1:46.8	The Communist Party is making no apologies for the law, saying it's brought back stability.
	...

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