Agnes Chow, an activist from Hong Kong, fled to Canada and is unlikely to return

Agnes Chow, a prominent pro-democracy activist in Hong Kong who was arrested as part of a massive crackdown, said she has fled to Canada and plans to skip bail in a bold challenge to authorities.

Ms Chow was arrested in 2020 along with several other dissidents, including newspaper magnate Jimmy Lai, after Beijing imposed a national security law on Hong Kong to curb dissent. Authorities were investigating Ms. Chow on suspicion of conspiring with outside elements, a vaguely defined political crime that carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. She was later released on bail.

Ms. Chow wrote in an Instagram post on Sunday that she had traveled to Canada in September to study at a university. She said she had decided not to return to Hong Kong in December to report the incident to police, as authorities had requested. “I may never go back in my life,” she wrote.

Hong Kong’s national security department, without naming Ms. Chow, condemned her stated intention to “openly jump bail.” In a statement on Monday, the department urged Ms Chow to “return immediately” to avoid being labeled a fugitive for life. In Beijing, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, when asked about Ms Chow’s statement, said no one was above the law and illegal acts would be punished.

Ms Chow, 27, rose to prominence as a teenage activist in 2012, protesting the government’s plans to introduce “patriotic education” in Hong Kong’s schools, alongside Joshua Wong. She later became one of the more prominent young leaders of the pro-democracy movement in 2014. In 2020, she was jailed for her role in a protest outside police headquarters during a wave of anti-government demonstrations the previous summer; she was released early after serving nearly seven months.

She was also arrested separately in 2020 on suspicion of a national security offence, and as part of her bail conditions, her travel documents were seized and she was ordered to report to police on a routine basis, Monday’s police statement said.

Ms Chow said in her Instagram post that to get her passport back she had to visit neighboring Shenzhen in mainland China, led by five security officers.

She said officers asked her to pose for photos at key sites, including the headquarters of tech company Tencent and an exhibition of the Communist Party’s achievements. She added that she was also asked to write a letter of gratitude to the police for organizing a tour that allowed her to “understand the great developments of the motherland.”

Explaining her decision not to return to Hong Kong after settling in Canada, Ms Chow said she did not want to risk being arrested again or not being able to leave. “There are still many unknowns in the future, but what I do know is that I finally don’t have to worry about getting arrested anymore and I can say and do whatever I want,” she wrote.

Given her notoriety, Ms. Chow’s announcement could be a source of embarrassment for Hong Kong authorities, who have increased their pressure on dissidents living in exile in recent months. In July, Hong Kong’s top leader said eight dissidents living abroad would be stigmatized as “rats on the street” and “pursued for life,” offering hefty financial rewards in exchange for information leading to their prosecution .

Steve Tsang, the director of the SOAS China Institute in London, said that by allowing Ms Chow to travel to Canada, authorities may have hoped to portray her as an example of a reformed former dissident who avoided jail time by adhering to Beijing . Her willingness to go on a trip to the mainland may have been taken by police as a sign that she was “repentant enough to be re-educated,” he said.

If she had returned to Hong Kong from Canada and “continued to behave as police expected,” it could send a message to young dissidents: Do you want to spend the rest of your life in prison, or do you want to be like Agnes? ” he said.

“The logic behind what they are doing is understandable,” he said. “They just underestimate the spirit of the young people in Hong Kong.”

Keith Bradsher reporting contributed.