Author Archives: Larry Ngan

Larry Ngan

From Hong Kong’s Tai Po fire to Jimmy Lai’s political persecution end impunity for crimes against journalists

By Larry Ngan | Mon 15th December 2025 - 5:00 pm

For the past two years, my father (Jimmy Lai) has been on trial under Hong Kong’s arbitrary and draconian national security law…. His skin is drying up, his nails are changing colour before falling off, and his teeth are decaying. His eyes are often dry and bloodshot.

– Claire Lai, The Washington Post, 9th December 2025

Lai was the owner of Apple Daily, the largest pro-democracy newspaper in Hong Kong. Mere words of concern from the UK government are not enough when it comes to his political imprisonment in Hong Kong. The UK Government needs to take action to end impunity in …

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Larry Ngan

Mutual Benefit for learning from each other: My thoughts on the success of our sister parties, and the Liberal International Executive Committee 2025

By Larry Ngan | Tue 25th November 2025 - 11:00 am

You know, the Dutch, they are so liberal, they’ve got two liberal parties… And one of them, the one that’s most like us, D66, were the smaller party in a coalition, and then in 2006 they got stuffed. 2%, 3 MPs, they came ninth.… But you know what, just scroll forward to last year at the European elections. Ninth? No. First. First. … There’s a model we can copy. Survival and revival is in our grasp. Have hope. Have belief.

– Speech by Tim Farron, our former leader, on 2015.

Fast forward to 29th October 2025, D66 became the largest party in the Dutch parliament for the first time, with the vote share of 16.9%. No political pundit predicted this happening when the election was called. According to most opinion polls, they were only on 5-6%. D66 was not even invited to the TV debate between the major parties.

Meanwhile, VVD suffered from a setback at the early stage of the election campaign after a mishap of their party leader Dilan Yeşilgöz MP. However they recovered very quickly and retained 22 seats (A loss of only 2), which is quite an achievement considering they had been in the last government with the populist PVV.

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Larry Ngan

LGBT rights in Asia and the challenges ahead

By Larry Ngan | Sun 19th October 2025 - 2:30 pm

The defeat of Hong Kong’s 2025 LGBT Bill marked a sobering moment for equality advocates across Asia. The bill would have granted limited rights, such as in medical and funeral matters, to same-sex couples who had already registered their unions overseas. Moreover, it was meant to comply with a 2023 court ruling. City legislators, however, voted it down 14 to 71.

What made sentiments harsher was that the failed bill neither legalised same-sex marriage nor established civil partnerships. Same-sex couples would still have to resort to registering civil partnerships in nearby countries such as Taiwan and Thailand. They would continue to face discrimination in society, especially regarding funeral arrangements and medical treatment. The Guardian even went so far as to criticise the bill for offering only the “bare minimum” of rights to same-sex couples.

Hong Kong society, however, overwhelmingly supports same-sex marriage. According to opinion polls, over 83% of Hong Kong citizens do not oppose same-sex relationships, and more than 60% agree with legalising same-sex marriage. Meanwhile, of the 14 legislators who voted “aye,” most will not stand again, making the chances of passing the bill even slimmer.

Hong Kong’s struggle is not unique in the Asia-Pacific region. Traditional Asian familial values remain the dominant factor, particularly among the older generations.

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Larry Ngan

Challenges for youth campaigners against authoritarian regime: from today’s Georgia to yesterday’s Hong Kong umbrella revolution

By Larry Ngan | Tue 14th October 2025 - 3:00 pm

Democracy movements are getting younger. But youthful energy alone isn’t enough. Movements for freedom can be hijacked by malign influence or twisted into populist causes. The real challenge is keeping them liberal, disciplined, and resilient.

Take Georgia. With intensifying demonstrations from Presidential elections to local elections earlier this month. The ruling Georgian Dream party — aligned with Moscow — was accused of manipulating the process, prompting opposition parties to call for a boycott and mass protests in Tbilisi.

While the protests unfolded, the Atlantic Council (23 October 2024) published a report detailing Russia’s interference in Georgian society. The findings were alarming because the Kremlin’s methods closely mirror what happened in Hong Kong between 2014 and 2020.

Russia’s playbook begins with hijacking narratives through targeted misinformation. These campaigns are not just broad — they are personal. Democracy leaders are singled out with lies, threats, and psychological pressure. Moscow’s intelligence networks, including the SVR, push the familiar “foreign invasion” line — claiming that Western powers are orchestrating coups to topple so-called “legitimate” pro-Russian governments.

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Larry Ngan

Labour and the British National (Overseas) visa policy: Why is it causing concerns among Hongkongers?

By Larry Ngan | Tue 16th September 2025 - 12:06 pm

There’s no doubt that Labour are concerned about the rise of Reform UK and their drum beat on immigration. Yet, PM Starmer’s immigration white paper and his speech in July has caused a ripple effect on the Hong Kong (HK) community in the UK.

One key area in Labour’s new immigration rules was about extending the path to settlement to ten years. This could potentially affect Hong Kongers’ resettlement in the UK under the British National (Overseas) BN(O) 5+1 route. Furthermore, additional and language requirements may affect the promise that all BN(O) passport holders have the opportunity to safely bring their HK families to the UK.

When being asked whether the BN(O) scheme would be affected, Labour Ministers appeared to be non-committal. Meanwhile, Liberal Democrats MPs are continuously highlighting the need for clarification, such as Pippa Heylings MP’s question on the 7th August 2025, which emphasised that it will be unfair to change the length of settlement mid-journey for a community who have close historic ties and a unique commitment.

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Larry Ngan

How the Labour Government’s “soft” approach to challenging regimes allowed transnational repression from the Chinese government

By Larry Ngan | Wed 10th September 2025 - 3:54 pm

How had the Rules-based International Order (‘RBIO’) influenced UK-China affairs on Hong Kong? A good example would The Handover. Britain transferred sovereignty to the People’s Republic of China (‘PRC’) under the Sino-British declaration 1984 which promised a high autonomy to Hong Kongers with ever progressive democracy in Hong Kong. The transfer of sovereignty occurred as promised regardless of the human rights turmoil between the signing of the treaty and the TianAnMen massacre. 

Yet, do challenging regimes like China followed international treaties to the letter? No. First, China under the Chinese Communist Party (‘CCP’) imposed Chinese laws into Hong Kong and threw out the promise of high autonomy. Then, the CCP imposed its will through transnational repression in total contempt of UK law.

Even the Conservatives recognised China’s flagrant breach of the Joint Declaration and dusted out rescue plans for Hong Kongers – the BN(O) visa scheme. Yet, PM Starmer’s Government seems to be soft on the challenging regime in China. And in the case of the Chinese Embassy Complex development plan, they tried turning a blind eye. A firm China strategy is urgently needed if we are to halt China’s movement in destroying the RBIO.

Transnational repression of the Chinese Government

Chinese authorities are sending secret police to the UK carrying out acts of harassment and intimidation over pro-democracy campaigners. The 2023 Intelligence and Security Committee’s (‘ISC’) report on China highlighted that the remits of China’s Intelligence Services (‘ChiS’) are far larger in the UK. More worryingly, CHiS practices, including kidnappings, have far greater remits compared with the intelligence operations of many other countries. Moreover, the reports of China’s action against our parliamentary democracy and secret Chinese police operations are mentioned by the ISC investigation.

The role of the CHiS is our fundamental opposition to a new mega Chinese Embassy at the Old Royal Mint. 

Former Minister of State for Security Tom Tugendhat once criticised the Chinese government on 6th June 2023 as follows:

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Larry Ngan

Liberals are leading in calling out Beijing’s distortions in UN Resolution 2758

By Larry Ngan | Tue 18th March 2025 - 5:30 pm

The People’s Republic of China (PRC) has sidelined Taiwan from participating in the United Nations and the related NGOs since UN resolution 2758 was adopted in 1971. China claims the legitimacy of its actions based on the resolution and its distortion of the actual meaning of the UN resolution. In recent years, parliaments in the free world took a tougher stance in calling out Beijing’s distortions in the Resolution’s actual wording. This included The Canadian House of Commons, where the Liberals hold a majority, passing a motion on November 2024 stating that UN Resolution 2758 does not establish the People’s Republic China’s (PRC) sovereignty over Taiwan and that UN2758 has not determined Taiwan’s future participation in the UN or other international organisations.

In my opinion, it is beyond doubt that the PRC mischaracterised the meaning of UN resolution 2758. Through these distortions, Beijing holds the view to legitimise its expansionism into Taiwan.

The resolution reads as:

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Larry Ngan

Dominic Raab – Your proposal is neither practical nor financially feasible

By Larry Ngan | Thu 4th June 2020 - 12:33 pm

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The Foreign Secretary had just announced a proposal on extending ‘leave to stay’ for British National (Overseas) passport holders from 6 months to 12 months if China forced the Hong Kong authorities to enact the National Security Law. It is still a short-term visa and the Government will need to clarify what “extendable with a pathway to the Citizenship” means. It seems the ‘Leave’ allows work and study during the 12 months stay, which will allow BN(O) status holders to live in the country.

The mechanisms on how the ambiguous proposal will work is all subject to the clarification from the Home Office and Foreign Office. Putting the many ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ in the statement aside, the Foreign Office clearly may not have thought the proposal thoroughly before announcement. If you went through the details, you will find the proposal is full of flaws. One of the biggest issues will be the financial burden to the BN(O) holders.

With reference to the dominating speculation that the visa can be extended, BN(O) holders will need to pay £1,033 each time he/she applies or extends his/her visa, and an additional £400 for covering the NHS surcharge. From October onwards, it will be increased to £624. Therefore, the cost for extending their visa will be £1,657 each time.

If the BN(O) holders wanted to convert their passports to British Citizenship (known as ‘Registration’), under the current system, they need to first be granted Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR), and stayed in UK for another year before they can Register. ILR application fee is £2,389 and £1,206 for Registration.

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Larry Ngan

The Hong Kong national security law is the wake up call for civil rights campaigners

By Larry Ngan | Tue 26th May 2020 - 12:45 pm

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Since the anti-extradition protests began on May 2019, civil rights movement campaigners tried to achieve its means by 3 pillars: Within the legislation assembly, demonstrations, and social media (including overseas campaigns).

Throughout the protest movements, they achieved some successes: The government was forced to withdraw the extradition bill amendment, Hong Kong was the focus of the mass media, and the USA took a number of actions in order to prevent China suppressing the protests by violent means.

However, everything changed for the worse on 21st May 2020.

The Chinese government announced then that they will submit a resolution to the National People’s Congress, which will instruct the Hong Kong government to pass a ‘National Security Law’. It will be included in Annex 3 of the Basic Law, which implied the Chinese National Security Law will be applied in the territory through local legislation or promulgation by the Chief Executive. That means the law can bypass the scrutiny of the legislative assembly in Hong Kong and further erode the legislative and judiciary autonomy of the territory.

The new law will make any of the following activities illegal:

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Larry Ngan

The Carrie Lam report exposed how the ‘Executive Dominant’ political system failed Hong Kong

By Larry Ngan | Sat 29th February 2020 - 10:11 am

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Throughout 2019, Hong Kong was in midst of a political crisis. The non-consulted Extradition Bill triggered protests against the government, then entrenched by police brutality. At the dawn of 2020, the city was hit with the Coronavirus crisis, and the government created a crisis of its own by mismanaging its economic, health and homeland security policies.

Instead of concentrating on protecting the citizens, Chief Executive Carrie Lam seemingly put her effort in filing a complaint on the performance of her own government to the Beijing authorities. The report was leaked to Apple Daily (a Hong Kong-based Chinese language newspaper) and it caused an uproar in the mass media towards her character.

Apple Daily reported on 22/02/2020 that Carrie Lam laid the blame not only on opposition parties and “radical elements” of the protest movements, she fiercely attacked her Executive Council for being incompetent and pro-government parties for being unsupportive, while some pro-government legislators even criticised her with personal attacks. She also asked Beijing to allow those from Hong Kong who were stuck in Wuhan to return home, so ‘the Hong Kongers can feel Beijing actually cared about them’.

This report exposed a few weaknesses in Hong Kong’s political system:

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Larry Ngan

Why we should do more to support the Hong Kong protest movement

By Larry Ngan | Wed 19th February 2020 - 6:30 pm

The 2019 General Election Liberal Democrats manifesto calls for standing to a peaceful world; not only because this is our value, but also everyone deserves a better world. When we jointly face challenges in our support for liberal democracies, stable partnerships are often fostered. One such alliance calls for “Honouring our legal and moral duty to the people of Hong Kong by reopening the British National Overseas Passport offer, extending the scheme to provide the right to abode to all holders”. Nonetheless, do words suffice in supporting the civilians in Hong Kong who are among those standing in defiance of brutal dictatorships?

Since the 2019 autumn conference, the situation in Hong Kong deteriorated substantially. By the end of December 2019, more than 7000 protesters had been arrested according to the figures from Hong Kong Police Force. For all that, it did not include those who disappeared after arrests, or those being transported to Mainland China. Two thirds of those arrested were between eleven to twenty five years old, and half of them were students. Some who were reported to have disappeared were later found dead under suspicious circumstances. New York Times investigations revealed police tactics on the day nearly caused a mass stampede as police deployed tear gas without warning, cornering civilians into a dead end. Demonstrators in that incident adverted mass injuries by shattering glass and forcibly entering an office building for refuge.

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Larry Ngan

A global advert for the Hong Kong Anti Extradition Bill campaign – implications for the Remain Campaign

By Larry Ngan | Mon 1st July 2019 - 11:35 am

An advertisement to support the Hong Kong Anti Extradition Movement appeared in 14 newspapers around the world on 27th June. The press was puzzled by 2 questions: who created the campaign and how did they manage to execute it?

Two million Hong Kong citizens participated in the Hong Kong anti extradition bill protest on 21st June. The protesters made three demands:

  1. the amendment of the bill to be retracted;
  2. the definition of the clashes between police and civilians on 12th June as ‘riot’ to be retracted; and,
  3. an independent commission to be formed in order to investigate the police behaviour on 12th June.

The Hong …

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Larry Ngan

Protesting the Hong Kong Extradition Bill – the story so far…

By Larry Ngan | Mon 24th June 2019 - 10:35 am

A million Hong Kong citizens went on a peaceful demonstration in Hong Kong on 12th June 2019 protesting against the government’s proposed Extradition Bill. Not only did the government refuse the demands of the demonstrators to retract the Bill, but they also described the movement as a “riot”. The police used heavy handed tactics to disperse the crowds including deployment of tear gas and pepper water spray, cornering and beating up protesters with police clubs and the making of arrests.

The government’s tactics infuriated those citizens who had not joined the demonstration, including those residing in overseas. The death of a …

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Larry Ngan

How Brexit diminishes the rights of British Nationals overseas

By Larry Ngan | Thu 9th May 2019 - 10:25 am

I was in Hong Kong in March, and most of my friends had asked me the same question: How’s the progress with BN(O) equal rights movement and how did Brexit affect it?

So what is BN(O)? It stands for British National (Overseas). According to the Home Office website, it means ‘Someone who was a British overseas territories citizen by connection with Hong Kong was able to register as a BN(O) before 1 July 1997.’ They are not granted Right of Abode anywhere, including the UK and HK.

The strict terms of BN(O) made most think that it is a travel document, but it is more than that, such as:

  1. They are eligible to join Her Majesty’s Civil Service, and are eligible to vote if they have lived in the UK for more than six months;
  2. may become British citizens by registration after residing in the UK for more than five years and possessing ILR for more than one year;
  3. would not be subjected to the annual quota of 1000 people if they wanted to apply to stay in UK under the working holiday scheme;
  4. their status is for life and is not be lost in case of Dual or Multiple Nationality, though their siblings cannot inherit the status.

According to the official figures, currently there are more than 800,000 BN(O) holders. Although the numbers are dwindling, they have no intention to withdraw it, and still use the passport to travel overseas. 

Our former leader Lord Paddy Ashdown campaigned for giving BN(O) holders the right of abode since years ago. There was also a seminar organised by the House of Lord with various campaign groups to call for the extension of BN(O) rights in March this year. 

The goal of the campaign groups is to fight for extending their rights. In a radio interview, Choy Ki, one of the representatives of BN(O) Association, mentioned, ‘BN(O) is not only a travel document, but a national identity with a lot of rights under the jurisdiction of the UK.’

The current political spectrum, however, has complicated the issue. For BN(O) holders, Brexit means our visa free travelling status to our EU neighbours could no longer be available. This is important because EU member states offered visa free travel for the HK passport holders, and most BN(O) holders are eligible to obtain one.

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