Activists apply for asylum in America

TWO young Chinese who fled to Hongkong last year have applied for political asylum in the United States.

Ms Liang Qiaohao and Mr Zhang Heqing, who claim to be dissidents active in the 1989 pro-democracy movement, arrived in San Francisco yesterday as stowaways on a cargo ship.

They have turned themselves in to US immigration and are applying for asylum with the help of the dissident organisations, the Federation for a Democratic China and the Alliance for Democracy in China.

Ms Liang, 21, who is pregnant, smuggled herself into Hongkong last July to join her husband, a dissident who had fled the country in late July, 1989.

It is understood that her husband, who wants to remain anonymous, was given approval by the Hongkong Government to stay in the territory.

During the pro-democracy movement, Ms Liang, then a student, and her husband, a worker in the Guangzhou area, reportedly helped organise demonstrations and collected donations.