Chloe Cheung, the youngest Hong Kong dissident on Beijing’s “Wanted Persons” list and Manager of Public Affairs and Advocacy at the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation, addressed the 18th Annual Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy on February 18, 2026.
Full Prepared Remarks:
You hear chanting.
“Fight for Freedom, Stand with Hong Kong!”
The sound echoes through the streets. Thousands of voices rising together.
Then suddenly, a sharp bang. Then another.
The sky fills with smoke. Tear gas.
Your eyes burn. Your throat closes. You taste chemicals in the air. Your chest tightens. Instinct takes over. Run.
Everyone’s running, but no one knows where to run. You hear coughing. Screaming. Someone shouts for water.
Someone falls. A young girl is crying, her hands shaking as she tries to pull on a mask. Rubber bullets crack through the air. The sound is sharp, unnatural, terrifying.
This is not a theatre performance. This was my home.
This was Hong Kong in 2019.
I was only 14 years old at my first protest in Hong Kong. I remember wearing my school uniform and going with my friends at an age intended for jokes, unfinished homework, and the luxurious ignorance of how the world truly works.
That summer didn’t “politicise” us and my fellow teenagers. It conscripted us.
We marched because our government proposed an extradition bill that would permit the transfer of Hong Kong citizens to mainland China for trial — into a judicial system answerable not to law, but to the whims of the Chinese Communist Party. A system where verdicts are known before a trial even begins. A place where dissent is dangerous.
We understood, even at 14, what that meant.
We had to stand up for our home. Not as radicals. But as citizens … or at least as children attempting to defend the future in which we were supposed to become citizens.
More than a million people marched peacefully. Then two million. One of the largest pro-democracy movements in modern history.
And the response was Police brutality. The authorities called us rioters, cockroaches, and street rats. They arrested everyone they could – students, teachers, journalists, anyone who stood for freedom – and threw them in prison. If you opposed the government, they would arrest you and destroy you.
Then came 2020.
While the world was distracted by a pandemic, China imposed the National Security Law on Hong Kong and criminalised four things: secession, subversion, terrorism, and collusion with foreign forces.
The CCP purposely left the interpretation of the National Security Law vague. So anything could now become a crime. Protest became a crime. Speech became a crime. Thought became a crime.
I had a choice to make.
Stay silent.
Stay and risk going to prison.
Or leave.
I chose exile. My rationale? At least outside of Hong Kong I would still have a voice.
But exile isn’t freedom.
It’s waking up every morning knowing that your friends are still in prison.
It’s checking your phone; afraid they’ll arrest someone you know.
It’s worrying that you’ll never go home again.
I exiled myself to the United Kingdom, where hundreds of thousands of Hong Kongers also now live.
And I’ve taken up advocacy work. I speak up for Hong Kongers in the British Parliament. I call for the release of political prisoners. I call for sanctions and accountability.
Doing this work makes the guilt bearable. At least I am doing something.
But two years ago, on Christmas Eve, the Hong Kong authorities placed a 1 million Hong Kong dollar bounty on my head. That’s roughly 130,000 US Dollars.
I was just 19 years old.
But they put my face on a wanted poster, and stuck it all over train stations, the airport, police stations, and declared me a fugitive.
Since then, I have been followed, harassed, intimidated, threatened in the United Kingdom. Many friends have cut me off out of fear of retaliation.
And it’s not just me. This is my friend Anna Kwok. [Hold up the picture]
She is also in exile. She also has a bounty on her head. She escaped to America and continues her advocacy.
And this is her father – last week, he was jailed in Hong Kong — not because of anything he did but because of who his daughter is.
He did not organise protests. He did not lobby foreign governments. He did not give speeches like this. He is just a father.
The message is “If we can’t silence you, we will hurt the people you love.”
And then there is Jimmy Lai. [Hold up picture]
An entrepreneur. Founder of Apple Daily, Hong Kong’s biggest pro-democracy media outlet. He built it because he believed Hong Kong deserved a free press.
For that belief, he was just sentenced to 20 years in prison at the age of 78.
And that is effectively a death sentence.
When people see headlines about Hong Kong, they sometimes imagine brave, untouchable activists. But the truth is much simpler. We are human. We feel fear. We feel guilt. We feel homesick. We cry. We are ordinary people put in extraordinary circumstances.
Today, nearly a thousand political prisoners remain behind bars in Hong Kong.
The Chinese Communist Party wants you to forget them. They want you to issue another bland statement, shake a hand, sign a trade deal, and move on.
In just five years China has destroyed Hong Kong. There is no more free press. There is no more Freedom of Assembly. There is no more right to protest. Everything can be a crime.
Hong Kong is now one of the world’s centres for international money laundering and sanctions evasion, supporting the trade of illicit weapons to Russia, Iran, and North Korea.
So tonight, I ask you as diplomats, as politicians, as journalists, as students.
Don’t look away from what China has done.
Stand with the people of Hong Kong.
Demand the release of Jimmy Lai.
Demand the release of Anna Kwok’s father.
Demand the release of every student, journalist, and average Hong Konger who had the guts to stand against China backed Hong Kong authorities.
Because if freedom only matters when it’s convenient, then it doesn’t matter at all.
Stand with Hong Kong, stand with freedom and democracy.
Thank you.
18th Annual Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy, U.N. Opening, Tuesday, February 17, 2026
Key Quotes:
“Overnight, protest became a crime. Speech became a crime. Thought became a crime. I had a choice to make. Stay silent. Stay and risk going to prison. Or leave. I chose exile. At least outside of Hong Kong I would still have a voice.”
“But I am still here today, speaking up for the nearly one thousand political prisoners who remain behind bars in Hong Kong. I call for their release. For the release of every student, journalist, and normal Hong Konger who had the guts to stand against the current of history, yelling “Stop!” Because if freedom only matters when it’s convenient, then it doesn’t matter at all.”
