Both veteran Marxists who have spent decades campaigning for Hong Kong democracy, Chan Po-ying (陳寶瑩) and Leung Kwok-hung (梁國雄) viewed marriage as something of a patriarchal and unnecessary institution.
However, when China’s crackdown on Hong Kong dissidents came for Leung, 63, they finally tied the knot.
The couple have been together for 45 years and are two of the most prominent faces on Hong Kong’s left, campaigning first against colonial Britain and then China’s rule.
Over the years Leung — better known by his sobriquet “Long Hair” (長毛) — has been in and out of prison on short sentences for his protest activity.
Last week he was among a group of dissidents sentenced to 18 months for organizing an “unlawful protest.”
However, it was the sudden imposition last year of a National Security Law — which carries up to life in prison — that finally pushed them to wed.
“We never thought we needed to get married until long-term imprisonment came right in our faces,” Chan, 63, told reporters from the office of the League of Social Democrats, an opposition party that she and Leung helped found in 2006.
“It was the National Security Law that propelled us to make up our mind,” she said.
As a married couple, the pair would have greater prison and court visitation rights should one of them be detained long term, they said.
National security police came for Leung in early January. He was among dozens of opposition figures arrested on charges of “subversion” for organizing an unofficial primary last year to decide who would run in local elections.
Chan and Leung wed soon after, but spent just 40 days together as newlyweds.
Leung was charged with subversion alongside 46 others, most of whom have been denied bail.
Since then, Chan has spent her days shuffling between detention centers, the courts and their office.
As a democracy advocate with her own long history of campaigning, she balks at being known as “Long Hair’s wife.”
“I think I am more than that,” she said.
Born into a middle-class Hong Kong family, Chan abandoned a potentially comfortable life to pursue opposition politics, founding grassroots feminist organizations.
However, she feels a sense of responsibility to continue advocating for Leung and others like him.
“As a family member who can sit through all his trials, I think I have the more privileged position to speak up about his cases and the impact of the National Security Law,” she said.
The legislation is part of a double-edged sword that Beijing has used to quash dissent in Hong Kong since the territory was convulsed by months of democracy protests in 2019.
The other side is a campaign dubbed “patriots ruling Hong Kong,” where critics of Beijing are being weeded out by political vetting and public office bans.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
China would train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction,” its minister for public security has said. “We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) told an annual global security forum. Wang made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organizations such as Interpol. The forum is part of ongoing