NEW YORK—Activists from Venezuela, North Korea, and other countries spoke out for civil rights at this year’s Oslo Freedom Forum on Oct. 24.
The speakers—some of whom escaped tyrannical rule—urged the audience to stand in solidarity with freedom-seekers around the world by rejecting authoritarianism.
One of the speakers, a former diplomat from North Korea, risked everything alongside his family and successfully defected from the hermit kingdom in 2016.
“North Koreans are 21st-century slaves,” said Thae Yong-Ho. “The people like me escaped from slavery at different times, but there are still many [who] are enslaved and suffering.”
Former Deputy Ambassador Thae Yong-ho talks at @OsloFF about why he defected from North Korea, after coming face to face with the reality of the regime. pic.twitter.com/ULpaYMD3JF
— Shelley Zhang (@shelzhang) October 23, 2019
Two focused on the Chinese regime, including Denise Ho, a leading Hong Kong activist, and pop star. She called out corporations who have been influenced by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for personal interest.
“U.S. corporations, such as NBA, Blizzard … Apple are all succumbing to this political pressure,” she said.
Business With China
And talking about doing business with the Chinese Communist Party, Professor Christopher Balding exposed the regime’s ties with Huawei: a company seeking to expand its 5G services around the world.
“And it’s very clearly providing services that help the efficiency and objectives in oppression in human rights violations,” said Balding. “They are clearly actively seeking to fulfill the needs of a client, which in this case would be the CCP which is seeking to crack down on the spread of human rights and democracy.”
At @OsloFF, @BaldingsWorld talks about the human rights of everyone’s favorite company, Huawei. He says that China will soon have one camera for every two people in China. pic.twitter.com/ZDOdvJFxhR
— Shelley Zhang (@shelzhang) October 23, 2019
Balding added that Huawei’s technology is used to persecute people of faith through data collection and facial recognition.
“I lived in China for nine years, and one of the things that you saw was, for many years, it seemed to be Falun Dafa that was being persecuted. I think what has surprised many people is how much they’ve been cracking down on Muslims all over China; they’ve been cracking down on Christians,” he said.
After the forum, guests said they were motivated to do more, such as Kate Lowe, who was born in Hong Kong.
“It feels bad to be away from home, especially at a time like this, but events like this help me realize that sometimes being far away gives you more leverage to help back home,” said Lowe.
Alexandra Chan seconded that emotion.
“Seeing all these activists united on stage made us realize that we all need to do our part in this fight,” she said. “And the hopelessness we feel when being away from home—as someone from Hong Kong, who grew up there—it’s daunting. But then you get motivated to fight back.”
