Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Simon Cheng is planning to establish an unofficial Parliament-in-exile along with fellow dissidents, The Guardian reports.
Cheng, who once worked for the British consulate in the former British territory, fled to London, where he was granted asylum, after claiming he was beaten and tortured by China's secret police.
This week, China passed a controversial new security law imposing harsher regulations on Hong Kong. Already hundreds have been arrested under its provisions, amid international condemnation of the Beijing regime.
“A shadow parliament can send a very clear signal to Beijing and the Hong Kong authorities that democracy need not be at the mercy of Beijing,” Cheng told Reuters in London. “We want to set up non-official civic groups that surely reflect the views of the Hong Kong people ... We are developing an alternative way to fight for democracy ... We need to be clever to deal with the expanding totalitarianism: they are showing more powerful muscle to suppress so we need to be more subtle and agile.”