Australia has granted political asylum to exiled Hong Kong pro-democracy figure Ted Hui Chi-fung, the former Democratic Party legislator who fled the territory in 2020 to escape charges stemming from the 2019 protest movement. Hui said the Australian Department of Home Affairs approved protection visas for him, his wife, children and parents this week, more than four years after he left Hong Kong. Hui, 42, faces multiple counts under Hong Kong’s national security legislation and was convicted in absentia in 2022 of unlawful assembly, receiving a three-and-a-half-year sentence. In 2023 Hong Kong police placed a HK$1 million (US$1.27 million) bounty on his arrest, one of several rewards offered for activists living overseas. Speaking from Adelaide, Hui urged Canberra to press for the release of jailed campaigners such as media tycoon Jimmy Lai and vowed that his family would “give back to Australia” through civic engagement. The Hong Kong government denounced Australia’s decision, warning that any country that “harbours criminals” shows contempt for the city’s legal system and would “bear the consequences”. The rebuke followed a similar protest to the United Kingdom, which has offered asylum to activist Tony Chung. The parallel cases add friction to Hong Kong’s relations with Western capitals even as Australia and China seek to steady broader diplomatic and trade ties.