00:00Back in Hong Kong, Yu Wing Wong was a farmer known for his organic crops, but as Hong Kong changed,
00:07with tightening laws and shrinking freedoms, he joined around 200,000 other Hong Kongers in migrating to the UK.
00:13He still farms on an allotment in suburban London, but these days, he has a new calling. Politics.
00:21Join together!
00:22On Thursday, he'll be standing as a Liberal Democratic candidate for Cricket Green in the Merton Council, London, a part
00:29of nationwide local elections.
00:30He thinks Hong Kong natives like himself should get more involved in British politics, both to solve problems in their
00:36new home and to help those back in their old one.
00:54At least 18 candidates in these local elections come from Hong Kong. A record. And for some, there's an urgency
01:02to their campaigning.
01:04Labour candidate for Queensbury Brint Council, Simon Chung, used to work for the British Consulate in Hong Kong, only to
01:10flee to the UK for his own safety.
01:13China arrested him during a trip to the Chinese mainland, and he says he was interrogated and physically abused. He's
01:19still actively wanted in Hong Kong.
01:22And so, while bread-and-butter issues like the state of the local pavement are on his mind, so too
01:28is a possibility of an elected position as a source of personal safety and a chance at countering China's long
01:35reach, even well beyond its borders.
01:49These Hong Kong natives hope even a local council position will show that they have really arrived in the UK,
01:55while also giving them some tools to help those still faced with oppression.
02:00Joseph Wu, John Van Trieste, and Tim Smith for Taiwan Plus.
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