Pro-democracy HK actor hints at desire to become Taiwanese citizen

Taipei, May 12 (CNA) Award-winning Hong Kong actor Anthony Wong (黃秋生), one of the few Hong Kong celebrities to publicly support Hong Kong's democracy movement, indicated Tuesday he is preparing to become a Taiwan citizen.

In a Facebook post early Tuesday, Wong said he is currently in Taiwan undergoing the compulsory 14-day quarantine required of all arrivals from overseas as part of the Taiwan government's policy to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

In a comment under the post, a netizen suggested that Wong become a naturalized Taiwan citizen, to which Wong responded he's "making preparations," without elaborating.

Wong's remark drew many positive responses from netizens, most of them from Taiwan, who said he could now live in a true democratic country.

The 58-year-old actor was known for his supporter of the 2014 Umbrella Movement, a series of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.

He also openly supported the months-long pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong that erupted in June 2019 and expanded into opposition to what the protesters see as a serious erosion of civil liberties in the former British territory.

Democracy activists have since accused Beijing and Hong Kong authorities of taking advantage of the relative quiet during the COVID-19 outbreak to continue to crack down on dissent.

They have pointed to the arrests of 15 high-profile activists on April 18 and crackdowns on May 1 Labor Day protests on the grounds that they were violating social distancing rules.

Wong has won multiple film awards in Hong Kong, Taiwan and China during his three-decade-long acting career.

He is best known in the West for his roles in the 1992 action film Hard Boiled, the 2002 crime thriller Infernal Affairs and as General Yang in the 2008 Hollywood film The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.