Australia’s decision to grant asylum to former Hong Kong legislator Ted Hui is a show of defiance against the Hong Kong authorities, says a Sydney-based lawyer and human rights advocate.
Mark Tarrant, who also assisted student activist Drew Pavlou in his case against former CCP diplomat Xu Jie, said the latest decision did not reflect well on the three Australian judges that remain on the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal.
In Hong Kong, both local and overseas judges are appointed to its highest court—an arrangement established during the 1997 handover that sets it apart from the opaque legal system of mainland China.
However, since the National Security Law was imposed, foreign judges have been leaving one by one, bringing the total number of foreign justices down from 13 to five—a 25-year low.
The remaining Australian judges include James Allsop, Patrick Keane, and William Gummow.
“They should not be working for a regime that relentlessly persecutes political dissidents,” Tarrant told The Epoch Times.
“The Australian government’s decision to grant Ted Hui a protection visa is a slap in the face for the HK SAR [Special Administrative Region] and its Chief Executive John Lee, who was sanctioned by the first Trump [administration] for serious human rights abuses in Hong Kong,” he added.
With the granting of asylum for Hui, Tarrant says the HK authorities have now been consigned to the “ranks of abusive regimes, on par with North Korea and Iran.”
On Aug. 15, Hui publicly revealed he had been granted asylum to remain in Australia.
Currently working as a solicitor in Adelaide, Hui made the announcement in a Facebook post, saying asylum also extends to his wife, children, and parents.
“I express my sincere gratitude to the government of Australia—both present and former—for recognising our need for asylum and granting us this protection,” he wrote.
“In thanking the government, I also thank the people of Australia, whom it represents. This decision reflects values of freedom, justice, and compassion that my family will never take for granted.”
Hui promised to “give back to Australia in every way we can,” and called on the Australian government not to forget those in Hong Kong who are still imprisoned.
“Men and women like Jimmy Lai, the defendants in the 47 democrats case, and the leaders of the Hong Kong Alliance, etc., face long sentences simply for defending basic democratic rights. Australia must do more to rescue them and to speak up for their humanity,” Hui wrote in the post.
“Its stance matters internationally, and its protection of Hongkongers sets a precedent for other democracies.”
Hui is a high-profile critic of Hong Kong’s controversial National Security Law, which triggered widespread democracy protests in 2019-2020. The lawmaker also faces several charges and was the target of a Hong Kong police bounty of HK$1 million (AU$196,000) in 2023.
The National Security Law, passed by Beijing’s rubber-stamp legislature in 2020, received strong criticism for eroding the “one country, two systems” model, which was promised by the Chinese communist regime when Hong Kong was handed over in 1997.
Hui has since pursued a legal career in Adelaide and was admitted to the Supreme Court of South Australia in 2023.
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