1st May: Sixtus Baggio Leung Chung-hang, a former separatist lawmaker who fled Hong Kong last November, has co-founded an advocacy group in the United States and pledged to push for a boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022. Two weeks earlier, a group of Uyghurs, Tibetans, and Hong Kong activists called on governments, citizens, Olympic committees, and athletes to boycott the 2022 Winter Olympics in China entirely. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi supports a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Olympics. Read more.
Sixtus Baggio Leung Chung-hang is a Hong Kong activist and politician. He is the convenor of Youngspiration, a localist political group in Hong Kong that leans towards Hong Kong independence, and is also leader & spokesperson of the pro-independence Hong Kong National Front.
He added that the Hong Kong Liberation Coalition, located in Washington, would advocate for further punishments against authorities involved in human rights breaches in the city, as well as assistance to individuals who fled to avoid detention during the 2019 anti-government protests.
“If history repeats again, all of us will continue to suffer under the expansion of an authoritarian China,” Leung said, citing attempts to boycott the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games hosted by German dictator Adolf Hitler.
Leung is believed to be one of 30 activists wanted in Hong Kong on suspicion of breaking Beijing’s national security law, which was imposed on the city last June. His new organization will be the second in Washington dedicated to strengthening Hong Kong’s democracy.
The Hong Kong Democracy Council, which was founded in 2019, previously lobbied for the approval of multiple measures supporting US sanctions against officials accused of human rights violations in Hong Kong.
Leung and other Hongkongers in exile were preparing protests in Washington with the Uygur and Tibetan communities to demand a boycott of the Winter Olympics, which begin on February 4 next year in Beijing. They will target potential sponsors as well as the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee, which has previously stated that boycotts only harm athletes, Leung added.
Some US senators have been louder in their calls for a boycott of the Beijing Olympics, claiming that American firms are aiding the Chinese government by remaining silent about what the State Department has called the genocide of Uygurs and other ethnic minorities in China.
However, some prominent Hong Kong-focused lobbyists in Washington have given the new group the cold shoulder, casting doubt on Leung’s political judgment and claimed ties to those who publicly supported the January 6 storming of the US Capitol.
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