Tony Chung

Tony Chung Hon-lam (; born 22 April 2001) is a Hong Kong pro-independence activist. He was the founder and convenor of the localist camp student group Studentlocalism. On 29 July 2020, he became the first political figure to be arrested on suspicion of violating the newly imposed national security law and has also been charged with money laundering and publishing seditious articles. In December 2023 he fled to the United Kingdom to seek asylum. It aimed to promote the concept of independence on campus by setting up student concern groups. By the end of August 2016, 28 localist concern groups were being formed at schools across the city. Chung believed that Leung put the student groups on the map. He and other Studentlocalism leaders had been "investigated" by state-owned newspaper Wen Wei Po. He was also reportedly shadowed by three retired local police officers during a trip to Taiwan in 2019. He was subsequently charged with undermining national unification and conspiring to publish seditious materials on the next day. Being denied bail, Chung would be detained until his court hearing in January 2021.

On 11 December 2020, Chung was convicted of desecrating the Chinese flag and also of participating in an unlawful assembly in relation to the 14 May 2019 protest at LegCo. On 29 December 2020 he was sentenced to three months for each of the two charges, and ordered to spend a total of four months behind bars. In addition, Chung continued to face pending charges of secession, money laundering, and conspiracy to publish seditious content.

On 3 November 2021, Chung pleaded guilty to secession under the national security law and money-laundering. The prosecutor read out the summary of facts for the charges, including social media posts dating back to 2016 which called for the public to join protests and push to "get rid of Chinese colonial rule," as well as the mission and manifesto of the Studentlocalism. Names and amount of donations made to Chung's PayPal accounts with messages such as "keep it up" and "Hong Kong independence" were also read aloud at the court. After the clerk read out the secession charge, Chung said "I plead guilty, I have no shame in my heart." He was interrupted the clerk who told Chung not to "make any political declaration." He was sentenced to three years and seven months on 23 November, becoming the third and the youngest person to be jailed under the national security law, after he had pleaded guilty to secession and one count of money laundering.

On 28 December 2023, it was announced that Chung had sought asylum in the United Kingdom. Chung was granted permission to take a short trip to Japan on holiday on condition that he had a return ticket, but fled to London instead. On 24 December 2024, a list of six people living overseas who were wanted by Hong Kong police over national security offences was published; Chung was on the list. In March 2025, it was reported that neighbours of Chung in the UK, along with those of fellow activist Carmen Lau, had received letters that had encouraged them to hand him over to the Chinese embassy. An embassy spokesperson denied the allegation, saying that the letters were made up and staged. Hong Kong police confirmed in March 2025 that they had brought in a person that month, who local media reported to be Chung's stepfather, to assist with their investigation.