To others at his university, Theo seems like an ordinary international student, working hard at his studies and improving his English. They might also consider him a little aloof. That’s because he’s unable to tell anyone the real reason he is in the UK.
Three years ago, he was one of tens of thousands of protesters on the streets of Hong Kong defying Beijing and the authorities in demanding true democracy for the former British colony.
As China’s crackdown on the officially autonomous city intensified, Theo was arrested and forced to flee abroad. Out of fear of retribution from Beijing’s long reach, he is unable to tell people the truth.
“I find it so difficult to feel like a normal student,” Theo, which is a pseudonym, told The Telegraph, “I feel like I can’t make friends easily because I don’t want to share my true past.
“Even with Hong Konger friends here, or any friends really, I will use a fake story like, ‘I came here because I’ll get a better degree’ or ‘when I graduate I’ll try and get a job in Hong Kong’”.
Theo is telling his story as revelations grow about unofficial “police stations” China has set up across the world. Campaigners claim they have been used to silence dissenters and force émigrés to return home.
The young Hong Konger features prominently in a new BBC documentary, Hong Kong’s Fight for Freedom, the second episode of which is broadcast on Monday.
To protect his and the other local contributors’ identities, the programme-makers used artificial intelligence to create false faces for them. It is the same technology behind so-called deepfakes, which are used to make convincing video impersonations of real people.
The documentary uses deepfake technology to hide speakers' identities Image / BBC
Theo was studying mechanical engineering at Hong Kong Polytechnic University when protests first broke out at plans to pass an extradition law that would affect people, including fugitives from mainland China.
The protests spiralled rapidly, to the point that on June 9, 2019, as many as a million Hong Kongers took to the streets in opposition to the extradition bill.
Theo was among them, having been persuaded by his fellow students to join in. “I thought, I can go, it’s a peaceful protest, I can join and show my concerns about the extradition deal,” he said.
Despite the unprecedented number of citizens on the street, the Hong Kong authorities insisted that nothing would change. Carrie Lam, the then-chief executive of the city, announced the following day that she would press ahead with the bill on June 12.
Theo, growing in anger, joined an enormous protest that day that surrounded Hong Kong’s legislative committee building and prevented it from resuming progress of the bill.
At that protest, however, the police turned violent, firing tear gas and rubber bullets at the protesters and charging them with riot shields and batons, injuring many.
It was that moment that changed Theo’s worldview, turning him against the police and making him determined to protest whenever he could, often violently.
Theo insists he was never an organiser and only a low-level protester, but it didn’t stop the police from arresting him and launching a thorough investigation of his life.
While some were able to hide their actions from their family, he could not.
“When I was arrested, they took me back to my home to search it, so my parents saw me under arrest,” he said.
Theo was ultimately driven to flee when he was officially charged by police, but he had no idea what for.
“After I was arrested, my charge sheet was just blank, so I didn’t know what I’d been charged with,” he said.” “My friends told me to leave because I could have gone to jail for a long time.”
The police had access to his phone while he was under arrest and there was no knowing what they might use from it against him.
Theo was arrested while throwing Molotov cocktails and he feared they might claim he had been looking at bomb-making on his phone and charge him with terrorism, putting him behind bars for decades. “That’s the main reason I left so quickly.”
However, there was no guarantee that he would be able to escape. While still on bail, he headed for the airport and hoped he’d get through.
“It was before the National Security Law, so it was easier to leave,” he told The Telegraph, referring to the draconian legislation imposed on Hong Kong by Beijing to end the stand-off over the extradition bill.
“But I had to take some risks by just going to the airport and buying a ticket. When I went to the airport, I didn’t know if I’d be arrested again or be able to leave.
“I didn’t know if I would get through the immigration department, but I tried it, and luckily I was able to go.”
Having been born after Hong Kong was handed over to Chinese rule in 1997, Theo was not directly eligible for the British National (Overseas) visa that has allowed 123,000 Hong Kongers to flee to the UK.
He went first to Germany before one of his parents was able to join him in the UK, giving Theo dependent status under their own BNO visa.
It has meant that his family is now split in two. His other parent and his siblings remain in Hong Kong and at risk of retaliation.
“I pay international fees for my uni. It’s a lot of money. [My family] need to support me here so they want to earn more in Hong Kong rather than come here and restart all the things again,” said Theo.
While they continue to support him, Theo’s future and that of his family remains unclear. “I’ve been here two years already, but I don’t see any future where I can return to Hong Kong.”
