Benedict Rogers

Joshua Wong, one of Hong Kong’s most prominent pro-democracy activists, turns 30 today. He should be in the prime of life, developing a career, perhaps starting a family. Instead, he is languishing in a prison cell, where he has spent much of the past decade. Wong faces the prospect of spending the rest of his life behind bars. His crime? Peacefully – though persistently – demanding the freedoms that were promised to Hong Kong. Wong's crime? Peacefully – though persistently – demanding the freedoms that were promised to Hong Kong Wong was first jailed nine years ago, when – together with pro-democracy legislator Nathan Law and student activist Alex Chow – he became one of Hong Kong’s first political prisoners.

Almost six years ago, within hours of the imposition of a draconian National Security Law by Beijing on Hong Kong, the British government initiated a new scheme for Hong Kongers to find sanctuary and a pathway to citizenship in the United Kingdom. It was announced by the prime minister at the time, Boris Johnson, and championed by his Home Secretary Priti Patel. It received unanimous cross-party support. It was one of the few things upon which Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer agreed. More than nine months later, Lau's application remains undecided. The Home Office says it is still conducting “good character” checks Broadly speaking, that consensus has continued.

Hong Kong is reeling from the tragedy of a devastating fire which ripped through seven 30-storey apartment blocks in a crowded housing estate two days ago. The death toll so far is 128 and still rising. At least 76 have been injured and almost 300 are missing. Stories abound of survivors trapped in flames and smoke. The death toll so far is 128 and still rising. At least 76 have been injured As is so often the case in such tragedies, the emergency services responded with inspirational courage. Firefighters battled the blaze for hours, medics treated the injured, and rescue workers pulled survivors from smoke-filled stairwells. At least one firefighter has died.

In a prison cell in the middle of Myanmar (Burma), isolated from other prisoners, sits an elderly woman who marks her 80th birthday today. She is serving a 27-year sentence. Yet she is no ordinary 80-year-old. Today, she should be approaching the end of her second term as de facto head of her country’s government, having won an overwhelming election victory almost five years ago. She should be thinking about retirement and handing over the reins to the next generation to take her country’s democracy further. Instead, she has spent the past four years in jail after her elected government was overthrown in a military coup on 1 February 2021, detained by a military junta still seen as illegitimate by much of the world.

As 133 cardinal electors gather in the Sistine Chapel tomorrow to begin the process of choosing a new Pope, there will be many considerations in their minds. They will be weighing up whether to build on or reject Francis’ legacy of progressive reform, whether to move in a more liberal or conservative direction, and whether to return the papacy to its Italian roots, opt for another European, or build on the precedent of the Latin American Francis and branch out to the wider world. Could this be the moment for an Asian or African pope? Persecution of Catholics – and Christians more broadly – has intensified in China over the past decade Amidst all these questions, there is one which may well be pivotal: what to do about China?

Myanmar, or Burma as it used to be known, has experienced far more than its fair share of tragedy over the past 75 years or more. The death and destruction caused by yesterday’s 7.7-magnitude earthquake is the latest in a litany of suffering which this beautiful but benighted South-East Asian nation has endured. I have visited the areas close to the epicentre of the earthquake many times in the past. I have been in Sagaing, Mandalay and the capital, Naypyidaw. The scenes of the devastation there are heartbreaking, because they are scenes of devastation affecting places and people I know well.

Four years ago, Myanmar’s fragile, nascent quasi-democracy was snuffed out after less than a decade of experimenting with limited reform and opening. In the early morning of 1 February 2021, armoured vehicles rolled down the capital’s absurd 20-lane empty highway. Adding to the surreal quality of the day, an aerobics instructor filming an exercise routine unwittingly captured the unfolding coup d’etat in the background of her video. The army arrested most of the country’s democratically elected leaders, including Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. The Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, General Min Aung Hlaing, seized power, plunging Myanmar into yet another era of repression, poverty and war.

Football has turned messy in Hong Kong. Last Sunday, the beleaguered Hong Kong Chinese Communist party was hoping for a public relations boost after Inter Miami agreed to play a friendly in the city against the Hong Kong Team. Instead, the game was overshadowed by a furious row after Miami footballer Lionel Messi failed to come out on the pitch because of a groin injury. The Hong Kong government reacted with outrage, and fans booed the players and demanded refunds. Three days later Messi was well enough to play in Japan, adding insult to injury in the eyes of the CCP. The outcry has now spread to mainland China, with state media there accusing Messi and his club of ‘political motives’ aimed at ‘embarrassing’ Hong Kong.

The suggestion this weekend that an alleged Chinese spy is a British-born parliamentary researcher – leading a policy group aimed at countering the growing threat from Beijing – has sent shockwaves through Westminster and beyond. The individual denies the accusations and says he is ‘completely innocent’ but MPs who know him and many of us who interacted with him are obviously concerned.  The investigation into the alleged spy is still ongoing, but regardless of the police's findings Xi Jinping’s regime has long been running a campaign to influence, infiltrate and intimidate people abroad, with the aim of silencing critics and subverting democracy.  These concerns have gained particular prominence in the UK.

As millions of Brits celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, others will be gathering outside the Chinese Embassy in London to mark a different event: the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. Beijing has done its best to wipe this day from the history books, but it’s vital we don’t forget an event that has foreshadowed the direction the Chinese Communist Party has taken in the years since. 33 years ago on the streets of China’s capital, we saw the true nature of the Chinese regime as it turned its guns and tanks on thousands of peaceful protesters. ‘They were shooting, people were running, and people tried to rescue others,’ said Jan Wong, a veteran Canadian journalist who was in Tiananmen Square on the day of the massacre.