2020-10-26 11:11:59
HONG KONG — In Western democracies, they have been welcomed as refugees escaping Beijing’s tightening grip over Hong Kong.
香港——在西方民主国家，他们被视为逃离北京对香港加强控制的难民受到欢迎。
In China, they have been denounced as violent criminals escaping punishment for their seditious activities.
在中国，他们被谴责为因从事煽动活动而逃避惩罚的暴力犯罪分子。
A group of Hong Kong activists who have been granted asylum in the United States, Canada and Germany in recent weeks are the latest catalyst for deteriorating relations between China and the West. Western leaders have asserted that they will stand up for human rights in Hong Kong, while Chinese officials have rebuked the countries for what they called interference in Beijing’s affairs.
近几周，一些香港活动人士在美国、加拿大和德国获得了庇护，这是中国与西方关系恶化的最新催化剂。西方领导人声称要捍卫香港的人权，而中国官员则指责这些国家是所谓的干涉中国内政。
The protesters’ newly conferred status has made clear how profoundly Hong Kong has changed since China imposed a tough new security law this summer. For decades, the city had been a place of shelter for people escaping war, famine and political oppression in mainland China. Now the semiautonomous city has become a source of asylum seekers.
抗议者被赋予的新身份清楚表明，自中国在今夏实施一项严厉的新安全法以来，香港发生了多么深刻的变化。数十年来，这座城市一直是大陆人躲避战争、饥荒和政治压迫的避难所。如今，这一半自治城市变成了寻求庇护者们的来源。
“The United States is a country that allows us freedom,” said Vicky Xiao, a 20-year-old university student from Hong Kong who is in California and seeking asylum in America.
“美国是给我们自由的国家，”20岁的香港大学生维琪·肖（音）说，她目前人在加州，正在寻求美国的庇护。
Ms. Xiao said she feared being arrested if she returned to Hong Kong because she had taken part in the demonstrations that roiled the city last year. One of her former classmates who had also joined in the demonstrations in Hong Kong had been detained by the police, she said.
维琪·肖说她担心如果返回香港就会被捕，因为她在去年参与了使这座城市动荡不安的抗议活动。她说，她有位参加了香港抗议的老同学就被警察抓了。
The United States is directly challenging Beijing over its crackdown on Hong Kong. The Trump administration moved to list refugees from the city as a priority for the first time — even as it reduced the total number of refugees the United States will take in annually. At least three bills now before Congress would enact greater protections for people fleeing Hong Kong for the United States. And the government has moved unusually quickly to grant asylum to at least two protesters who left Hong Kong late last year.
美国对北京镇压香港的行为发起了直接挑战。尽管它减少了每年接收难民的总数，但特朗普政府还是首次将香港难民列为优先事项。目前国会正在审议的至少三项法案将为香港逃往美国的人提供更多保护。政府也采取了异常迅速的行动，为至少两名在去年年底离开香港的抗议者提供了庇护。
The two activists, who asked not to be named to protect their families in Hong Kong, showed The New York Times documents stating they had received asylum in September. They said they had fled to the Los Angeles area after receiving multiple calls from an unlisted number that made them concerned they were at risk of being detained.
为了保护在香港的家人，这两名抗议者要求匿名，他们向《纽约时报》展示了9月份拿到的庇护文件。他们说，在接到一个非登记的号码打来的多个电话后，他们担心自己有被捕的危险，于是逃至洛杉矶地区。
Ms. Xiao, the university student who is awaiting a decision on her asylum application, is also in Southern California. She is currently on a student visa and lives with her parents, who are on business visas.
大学生维琪·肖也在南加州，等待着庇护申请的结果。她目前持学生签证，与持商务签证的父母住在一起。
She described sneaking out of her parents’ house with a backpack of clothes last August and flying to Hong Kong to join the protests without their approval. She said she returned after three days, but has also helped organize protests in the United States, which she thinks could put her at risk of arrest if she had to return to Hong Kong after her visa expires.
她说自己在去年8月背了一包衣服从父母的房子溜出来，在没有得到他们同意的情况下飞到香港参加抗议。她说，她在三天后回到美国，但也帮助组织了美国的抗议活动，她认为，如果签证到期后她必须返回香港，这些行为将让她面临被捕的风险。
“I don’t know what will happen to me if I go back to Hong Kong,” Ms. Xiao said. “But I don’t think that the consequences will be good.”
“我不知道如果回到香港会发生什么，”维琪·肖说。“但我认为下场不会很好。”
China has not commented on the U.S. asylum cases. But Beijing and the Hong Kong government have dismissed the notion that the city’s residents might need shelter from oppression, saying the authorities guarantee the rights of its people. “There are no so-called ‘refugees being persecuted’ in Hong Kong,” the city government said in a statement.
中国尚未对美国的庇护案例置评。但北京和香港政府驳斥了香港居民可能需要躲避压迫的说法，称当局会保障人民的权利。“香港没有所谓‘受迫害的难民’，”港府在一份声明中表示。
And officials have lashed out publicly at other countries. Hong Kong’s No. 2 leader, Matthew Cheung, summoned Germany’s consul general on Wednesday to complain after Germany granted asylum to a university student who was wanted on a rioting charge. Mr. Cheung said the move would “only send a plainly wrong message to criminals.”
官员们还公开批评了其他国家。香港的二号领导人张建宗于周三召见了德国总领事，对德国为一名因暴动罪名遭受通缉的大学生提供庇护表示不满。张建宗称此举只“会向罪犯发出极度错误的信息”。
In Canada, China’s ambassador, Cong Peiwu, warned Ottawa against accepting refugees from Hong Kong. He said that such a policy would embolden criminals in the Chinese city and put “the good health and safety” of 300,000 Canadian passport holders and companies in the territory at risk.
在加拿大，中国大使丛培武警告渥太华不要接受香港难民。他表示，这样的政策将会令这座中国城市里的犯罪分子更加肆无忌惮，并使香港境内的30万加拿大护照持有者和加拿大公司的“良好健康与安全”面临风险。
The ambassador’s remarks were regarded by some as a potential threat against Canadians in Hong Kong. They were also a reminder of the two Canadians who have been held for nearly two years in China in retaliation for the arrest of a top executive of Huawei, the Chinese technology giant. Canada’s foreign affairs minister, François-Philippe Champagne, denounced the comments as “totally unacceptable and disturbing.” (The Chinese government later asserted that the remarks had been taken out of context.)
一些人认为，大使的讲话是对在港加拿大人的潜在威胁。它们还让人想起，为报复中国科技巨头华为的高管被捕，有两名加拿大人已被中国关押近两年。加拿大外交部长商鹏飞(Francois-Philippe Champagne)谴责这些言论“完全不可接受，令人不安”。（中国政府后来声称，这些言论被断章取义。）
China’s crackdown over Hong Kong has prompted residents with means to consider their options elsewhere. Some have turned to Britain, Hong Kong’s former colonial master, which has expanded channels for the city’s residents to immigrate.
中国对香港的镇压促使有能力的香港居民考虑选择其他地方居住。一些人转向香港前殖民宗主国英国，该国已为香港居民拓宽了移民渠道。
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in June that the country would allow holders of British overseas passports in Hong Kong to live and work in Britain for up to five years and later apply for citizenship. The residency plan is open to nearly three million people in total.
英国首相鲍里斯·约翰逊(Boris Johnson)今年6月表示，英国将允许香港持有英国海外护照者在英国生活和工作5年，然后申请公民身份。该居留计划对近300万人开放。
China has criticized the plan. A foreign ministry spokesman, Zhao Lijian, said on Friday that Beijing is now considering not recognizing the British overseas passport as a valid travel document.
中国对该计划提出了批评。外交部发言人赵立坚上周五表示，北京正在考虑不承认英国海外护照为有效旅行证件。
Interest in the passports has grown, with the number of overseas passport holders more than doubling to over 357,000 in April from about 170,000 in 2018. Such passports, which were given to Hong Kong residents before the territory was returned to China in 1997, bear the insignia of the British government but do not confer the rights of citizenship.
香港民众对这种护照的兴趣越来越大，今年4月，持有海外护照的人数增加了一倍多，从2018年的约17万人达到35.7万人。这类护照是英国在香港1997年回归中国之前发给香港居民的，带有英国政府徽章，但不赋予英国公民权利。
Derek Yeung, 60, who worked in sales for technical products, moved to Britain in August to take advantage of the new policy. He said that he had often traveled to the mainland for work and had seen corruption and abuses of power. His experience convinced him that he would eventually need to leave Hong Kong after it returned to Chinese rule.
现年60岁的德里克·杨(Derek Yeung)曾从事技术产品销售工作，今年8月搬到了英国，以便享受新政策的好处。他说，他经常到大陆工作，看到腐败和滥用权力的现象。这样的经历让他相信，在香港回归中国统治后，他最终有必要离开香港。
“Because of my experience in China, I predicted that Hong Kong will soon degenerate into a police state,” he said by phone from Cambridge. The security law imposed this summer “just confirmed my fears,” he said.
“根据在中国的经历，我预计香港很快就会沦为一个警察国家，”他在剑桥接受电话采访时说。今年夏天实施的安全法“证实了我的担忧”，他说。
Overseas activists have also set up nonprofits like Haven Assistance to help Hong Kong’s protesters navigate asylum procedures abroad. Popular destinations include the United States, Britain, Germany and Taiwan, which opened a government office to assist asylum seekers from Hong Kong this summer.
海外活动人士还成立了“避风驿”(Haven Assistance)等非营利组织，帮助香港抗议者办理海外庇护手续。受欢迎的目的地包括美国、英国、德国和台湾。今年夏天，台湾设立了一个政府办公室，为来自香港的寻求庇护者提供帮助。
The group was started by Simon Cheng, who was granted political asylum in Britain in June, and other activists. Mr. Cheng says he gets 10 to 15 inquiries a day about asylum procedures in Britain alone.
这个组织是由今年6月获得英国政治庇护的郑文杰和其他活动人士创立的。郑文杰说，仅在英国，他每天都会接到10到15个有关庇护程序的询问。
“I am now safe here, but I need to help more people,” Mr. Cheng said. “I can’t be like a free rider.”
“我现在在这里很安全，但我需要帮助更多的人，”郑文杰说。“我不能像个搭便车的人。”
Mr. Cheng, a former employee of the British Consulate in Hong Kong, had been detained for 15 days in mainland China last year and accused of soliciting prostitution, a charge he denies. He says that while he was in custody he was beaten and hung for hours in a spread-eagle position, and coerced into making a videotaped confession.
郑文杰是英国驻香港领事馆的前雇员，去年在中国大陆被拘留15天，被控嫖娼，他否认了这一指控。他说，被拘留期间，他遭到殴打，并被摆成“大”字形吊了好几个小时，还被胁迫录制认罪的视频。
Mr. Cheng said that as an overseas passport holder, he was eligible to stay in Britain, but that gaining asylum would demonstrate the injustice of his experience.
郑文杰说，作为海外护照持有人，他有资格留在英国，但获得庇护可以证明他的遭遇是不公平的。
“I wanted to fight for my reputation, to show my detention politically motivated, that it was intrinsically persecution,” he said.
“我想为自己的名誉而战，表明我被拘留是出于政治动机，本质上是一种迫害，”他说。
王霜舟(Austin Ramzy)是《纽约时报》驻香港记者，专注本地新闻，也报道区域性和突发新闻。他此前驻台湾和北京，曾对亚洲重大事件作出报道。欢迎在Twitter上关注他 @austinramzy。
Maria Abi-Habib是时报南亚记者，常驻德里。自2017年加入时报前，她曾为《华尔街日报》在中东各地发回报道。欢迎在Twitter上关注她 @abihabib。
翻译：纽约时报中文网
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