Hong Kong protests: chief secretary decries reported German asylum offer to alleged rioter in meeting with consul general

The formal rebuke follows Monday’s release of a statement saying a 22-year-old Chinese University student had been granted refugee status

Offer sends ‘message to criminals that they need not face any criminal liability’, Matthew Cheung says at meeting also attended by city security chief

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The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees in Nuremberg, Germany. Photo: Picture Alliance via Getty Images

Published: 12:20am, 22 Oct 2020Updated: 10:04am, 22 Oct 2020

The Hong Kong government has formally voiced its disapproval to Germany after it was said to have granted refugee status to an activist facing a rioting charge over last year’s anti-government protests.

The official protest from Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung Kin-chung was delivered in a meeting initiated by the Hong Kong government with German Consul General Dieter Lamlé at Tamar on Wednesday.

The rebuke follows Haven Assistance issuing a statement on Monday that said a 22-year-old Chinese University student had been granted refugee status by Germany for three years.

Hong Kong Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung met with Germany’s consul general on Wednesday to express disapproval of a reported asylum offer to a protester. Photo: Edmond So

The group, co-founded by exiled pro-independence activist Ray Wong Toi-yeung, who himself was granted political asylum by Berlin in 2018, said it was the first instance of a protester connected to last year’s social unrest receiving asylum in the country.

The student told international media she was arrested at a protest last November and fled to Germany via Taiwan several days later without telling her family.