Hong Kong insurrectionist Agnes Chow runs from ongoing investigation, hides in Canada
Agnes Chow (left) and Joshua Wong (right) wearing red blindfolds to symbolize China's "red blinding power" over education in a September 23, 2014 protest. Image credit: via Public Domain.
Written by: Marthad Umucyaba
Insurrectionist Agnes Chow Ting has jumped bail and is refusing to report back to Hong Kong to serve the remainder of her sentence and cooperate with an investigation into other crimes committed during the 2019-2020 protests. She pleaded guilty to, and was convicted of, unlawful assembly and incitement during the June 21, 2019, attack and siege on the Wan Chai Hong Kong Police Headquarters.
Chow announced her decision to jump bail on December 3, 2023. Hong Kong officials have without question voiced their displeasure at her Instagram pronouncements. They’ve warned her of the prospects of becoming a fugitive for life if she does not report to the authorities by January 4th, 2023. No doubt the pro-colonial NATO controlled press will use Hong Kong’s enforcement of national sovereignty as proof of ‘an erosion of democratic values’ in Hong Kong and its ‘descent into brutal authoritarianism’.
Yet, the Hong Kong SAR was unusually lenient towards Agnes Chow, who associated herself with right-wing US military personnel and the American, European, and Baltic far-right to overthrow the Hong Kong government. The Hong Kong authorities were even lenient enough to give her the opportunity to study abroad in Canada. This abuse of the privilege given to her will now negatively affect other convicts and suspects detained under the National Security Act as well. Canada having withdrawn the extradition treaty with Hong Kong in 2020, is only stepping towards worse relations with China, as they’re now set to harbour Agnes Chow.
Agnes Chow’s ‘Humble’ Beginnings
Agnes Chow, brought up in an elitist Catholic reactionary upbringing, quickly involved herself into anti-communist student activism by joining “Scholarism”. The Scholarism movement was brought into existence to oppose the introduction of “Moral and National Education” from the mainland. Chow became a spokesperson during her schooling in Hong Kong Baptist University. The Scholarists opposed education that highlighted the Chinese historical struggle against colonialism and the success of the mainland in rapidly developing the economy and alleviating poverty, or any education that highlighted the benefits of Hong Kong’s freedom from British Colonialism (such as the introduction of elections where Asians could participate (2:00-3:00) [pages 24-27, MNEDoc].
In other words, they opposed anything in the curriculum that would rightly give credit to the Communist Party of China for the place in the world that China and its Hong Kong SAR hold today.
Chow was a freshman when the Umbrella Movement began in Hong Kong. Incidentally, the Sunflower Student Movement in Taiwan that opposed free trade with the Mainland also began during the same year, in 2014, and both movements received substantial diplomatic and financial support from the US and NATO. The goal of both movements was to consolidate the political base for secessionist movements in Taiwan and Hong Kong.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was the Sunrise Movement’s product, and the political party Demosisto was the Scholarists’ product. Agnes Chow is, incidentally, also a co-founder of Demosisto. Agnes Chow deferred her last year in University to run for the Hong Kong Legislative Council Complex (LegCo) and push for pro-colonial Hong Kong secessionism while in the LegCo.
Agnes Chow’s disqualification from Public Office
Agnes Chow, being born in 1996, a year before the official handover of Hong Kong to China, still had British Nationality from the time she was born up until her decision to run as a Demosisto candidate for the LegCo in 2017. She deferred her final year in Hong Kong Baptist University and renounced her British Nationality in order to be eligible to run in the LegCo, since only Chinese citizens are eligible to run for the Hong Kong LegCo, and China does not allow dual citizenship.
Agnes Chow was deemed ineligible to run in the 2018 by-election due to the secessionist Doctrine of Demosisto, which called for ‘self-determination’. She openly professed to running as a member of the Demosisto political party, signed onto, and supported the Doctrine [ACCaseLaw, pages 13-14]. This secessionist Doctrine was found by the Court of First Instance to be in violation of Agnes Chow’s oath to the Basic Law of Hong Kong, which has the following provisions:
Article One: The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is an inalienable part of the People’s Republic of China
Article Twelve: The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region shall be a local administrative region of the People’s Republic of China, which shall enjoy a high degree of autonomy and come directly under the Central People’s Government
Article 159(4): No amendment to this Law shall contravene the established basic policies of the People's Republic of China regarding Hong Kong. (ACCaseLaw, page 4)
Her lawyer, Mr Paul Sheih, made a peculiar argument. He claimed that the signed and declared oath to the Basic Law was not a ‘substantive’ one, so it didn’t have to be followed through. This contention was rejected by Judge Anderson Chow. [ACCaseLaw, pages 9-11].
Meanwhile, Agnes Chow even wrote submissions claiming that the call for ‘self-determination’ was not a rallying cry for secession, but a tool to put pressure on Beijing to redress issues concerning autonomy [ACCaseLaw, page 20]. But if the oath is not substantive, why did Agnes Chow have to prove that the call for ‘self-determination’ doesn’t violate the oath? Perhaps this indicates Chow and her lawyer Sheih knew upholding an oath of office was important after all.
Needless to say, the arguments made by Sheih were discarded and Agnes Chow was disqualified from running for public office under the banner of Demosisto, awarding by default the LegCo seat she was contesting to Au Nok Him. However, since Agnes Chow’s disqualification was also procedurally improper, Au Nok Him was later disqualified as well [ACCaseLaw, page 5 and 25-29]. This event set the stage for Agnes to take a more radical and insurrectionist path, beginning with the assault on the Wan Chai Hong Kong Police Headquarters.
Agnes Chow’s assault on the Hong Kong Police Headquarters
The Canada Files reached out to the New People’s Party, The Democratic Alliance for The Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, and The Ministry of Justice, who referred us to the Hong Kong Police Headquarters. We sought interviews on the convictions of incitement and unlawful assembly Agnes Chow was convicted of, along with the investigation into further allegations of sedition.
The New People’s Party and The Democratic Alliance for The Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong were not immediately available for comment. The Hong Kong Police Headquarters declined the interview for the same reason that John Lee, The Chief Executive, declined to provide details on Agnes Chow’s case:
“I will not discuss the details of the case because I leave it to law enforcement agencies to decide whether the relevant information will be used as evidence after any fugitive is tracked down.”
Nevertheless, one important aspect of the Hong Kong Police Headquarters is its strategic location. It’s just south across the street from the LegCo. On June 21, 2019, the date of the events that saw Agnes Chow convicted of incitement and unlawful assembly, Demosisto-led protests laid siege to the Hong Kong Police Headquarters. The protest forced many police officers in, and rendered them unable to respond to 999 calls (Hong Kong’s 911) calls. Eggs were thrown at the headquarters as well (0:23-0:29). Just ten days after the siege, on July 1, 2019, the infamous attack on the LegCo occurred.
During this attack, both the Wan Chai Police Headquarters and the LegCo were targeted by insurrectionists. In the evening, insurrectionists broke in, defaced the Hong Kong LegCo emblem and covered it with the colonial British flag. This was an escalation of the previous Police Headquarters siege. Seeking to prevent a repeat of the siege on the Police Station, the police were preoccupied with defending the Wan Chai Police Headquarters on July 1 and thus diverted (1:29-2:05).
These two events of the Hong Kong insurrection were very close together in time and linked, due to the proximity of the two locations. Agnes Chow was still leading Demosisto at the time of the July 1, 2019, attack. This, among other things, is why Chow’s still under investigation, even though she had pleaded guilty to unlawful assembly and incitement for the June 21, 2019, Police Headquarters siege. The role of US Marines and the National Endowment of Democracy in the coup attempt is already known. Chow was also already found to be a professed secessionist when she was disqualified from running for office. Now she is jumping bail to Canada, three years after Canada withdrew the extradition treaty with Hong Kong.
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“The Hong Kong Police were not doing their job upholding the legal system in Hong Kong… For example, I was forced to write a letter of repentance and I was being forced to go to mainland China and they [the punishments] are not something within the Hong Kong legal system.”
Here’s a quick reminder of the Basic Law, which has been part of the Hong Kong legal system since its return to China in 1997:
Article One: The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is an inalienable part of the People’s Republic of China
Article 159(4): No amendment to this Law shall contravene the established basic policies of the People's Republic of China regarding Hong Kong. [ACCaseLaw, page 4]
Agnes Chow was asked to write a repentance letter for insurrection and sedition and take a tour of the country she betrayed in favour of Hong Kong’s former colonial master, Britain, a member of NATO. The tour was in hopes of decolonising the mind of Agnes Chow and getting her to see the light, appreciate her own roots and repent for betraying her people and her homeland. Chow refused to repent, however, and has now fled to Canada, a colonial appendage of the United Kingdom and another member of NATO, choosing to jump bail.
Canada, in withdrawing from the Hong Kong extradition treaty after the NATO-incited coup attempt in Hong Kong failed, has shamelessly disregarded the national sovereignty of China. Canada is now set to harbour yet another pro-colonial right-wing extremist, something they’ve done for 75+ years, in the name of ‘Democracy and Human Rights’.
Whether the lenience given towards Agnes Chow that allowed her to temporarily escape justice has to do with China’s culture of compassion and focus towards youth and their development, or whether it has to do with the lingering pro-colonial and pro-NATO elements in Hong Kong, the myth of China’s ‘brutal authoritarianism’ should be clearly exposed as a farce with this saga. This episode has demonstrated yet again that Canada, a country guilty of genocide and ethnic cleansing, and guilty of further enabling said crimes in Palestine, should not be seen as credible, or even heeded or listened to in the sphere of democracy, human rights, and the rule of law.
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Marthad Shingiro Umucyaba (formerly referred to as Christian Shingiro) is a Rwandan-born naturalized Canadian expat. He is known for his participation in Communist/anti-imperialist national and international politics and is the radio show host of The Socially Radical Guitarist.
He is also a freelance web developer in Hong Kong, China, striving to provide “Socially Radical Web Design at a socially reasonable price”.
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