Agnes shared that the biggest shadow she felt in prison came from National Security personnel, who asked her to sign a document every three months.
Agnes Chow, former deputy secretary-general of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy group Demosisto, who lives in exile in Canada, recently shared her experience in Hong Kong prison.
Agnes, 27, was a former spokesperson of the activist group Scholarism and a leader of the Hong Kong Demosisto Party together with Joshua Wong, and others. Known as the “Goddess of Scholarism,” she is fluent in Japanese. She has been to Japan for activities such as discussion forums on Hong Kong’s political situation and has a certain reputation in Japan.
In August 2020, under the Hong Kong National Security Act, Agnes was arrested in connection with the case of former Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai. In December 2020, she was sentenced to 10 months in jail for “inciting others to participate in unauthorized assemblies” and other crimes due to involvement in the anti-ELAB movement in 2019.
Since her release in June 2021, Agnes has been required to report to national security police regularly, with her passport confiscated and her travel restricted. In 2023, being allowed to study in Canada, Agnes announced that she had decided to go into exile and would not return to Hong Kong to report to the police.
“I don’t want to be forced to do anything any more, and I don’t want to be forced to go to mainland China any more,” she wrote in an Instagram post.
She also revealed that after her release from prison, she had been asked by state security officers to visit mainland China and was forced to write a letter of thanks before she could go to Canada for further studies.
Hong Kong police announced on Feb. 6 that Agnes was officially wanted and would be “hunted for life.”
In a video published on Feb. 26, Agnes said she was very uncomfortable during the initial stage in prison and washed her face in tears every day. She was initially detained at Lo Wu Correctional Institution but was suddenly upgraded to “Grade A” status and detained at Tai Lam Correctional Institution together with other serious offenders sentenced to life imprisonment.
She shared that although the charges against her fellow inmates sounded horrible, they were not that vicious and that she got along well with her cellmates and was not bullied.
By Cindy Li
