Hong Kong police have announced bounties of HK$1m (about £105,000) for information leading to the arrest of six democracy advocates based overseas.
Hong Kong’s Secretary for Security, Chris Tang stated that the activists had endangered national security through activities such as lobbying for sanctions against Hong Kong officials and judges.
The six activists include Tony Chung, the former head of the pro-Hong Kong independence group Studentlocalism, Joseph Tay, founder of Canada-based advocacy organisation Hongkonger Station, and Carmen Lau of the Hong Kong Democracy Council.
The others are Chung Kim-wah, a former pollster at the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute, Victor Ho, a Canada-based YouTuber, and Chloe Cheung of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong.
Five of the six people targeted are accused of inciting secession and collusion with a foreign country or external forces. Victor Ho is charged with subversion.
Lau wrote on X, “I just learned that I am now a wanted Hong Konger.” He added, “In 2019, [I] was not afraid of tear gas and bullets, and now I do not and will not back down only because of an arrest warrant and a bounty.”
“Since I fled, I have often regretted not being able to serve my people until the end. Therefore, as a member of the diaspora and as a Hong Konger, I swear to put our fight for Hong Kong before anything else, even before myself.”
Carmen Lau
According to local media, authorities also said that they would cancel the passports of seven others for whom bounties had already been issued, including the former lawmakers Ted Hui and Dennis Kwok.
The announcement, issued Tuesday, December 24, 2024, is the third time authorities have offered rewards of HK$1m for help capturing those alleged to have violated the city’s national security laws.
The two previous rounds of bounties in July and December last year were met with intense criticism from western countries, with Hong Kong and China in turn railing against “interference” from foreign nations.
The Chinese territory’s wanted list now includes 19 campaigners accused of loosely-defined offences of secession, subversion or collusion.
The bounties are seen as largely symbolic given that they affect people living abroad in countries unlikely to extradite political activists to Hong Kong or China.
Political dissent in Hong Kong has been quashed since Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law in 2020 after huge, sometimes violent pro-democracy protests the year before.
Many opposition figures fled abroad, while others have been arrested and sentenced to years in jail.
Western governments and human rights groups have condemned the crackdown in the former British colony, while mainland Chinese and Hong Kong officials have defended the laws as necessary to restore stability after 2019’s often violent demonstrations.
Hong Kong has previously cancelled the passports of other pro-democracy activists on its wanted list under its second national security law enacted in March.
HRW Criticises Bounties
Human Rights Watch (HRW) called the bounties “a cowardly act of intimidation.”
The NGO’s Associate China Director, Maya Wang, said in a statement, “We call on the UK and Canadian governments to act immediately to push back against the Hong Kong government’s attempts to threaten Hongkongers living in their countries.”
Also, Kevin Yam, an Australia-based lawyer who was added to the wanted list last July, said that the latest bounties would undermine the city’s efforts to revive its international reputation, which was battered by the crackdowns and some of the world’s toughest border controls during the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, China’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday that it supported Hong Kong “performing its duties in accordance with the law.”
The ministry’s spokesperson, Mao Ning stated that Hong Kong is a society governed by the rule of law and no one has extrajudicial privileges.
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