Police are offering HK$1 million for each of the activists they accuse of endangering national security.
Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States have condemned Hong Kong police over arrest warrants and bounties for eight exiled pro-democracy activists.
Hong Kong police on Monday evening announced a 1 million Hong Kong dollar ($127,600) reward for information leading to the capture of the eight living overseas.
“Beijing’s extraterritorial application of the National Security Act is a dangerous precedent that threatens the human rights and fundamental freedoms of people around the world,” said US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller, in a statement.
Hong Kong accuses the eight, including three former lawmakers, of “collusion with foreign forces” under the National Security Law, which Beijing imposed on the territory in 2020.
The eight “committed serious crimes that endanger national security, advocated sanctions, undermined Hong Kong and intimidated Hong Kong officials,” as well as “planned for foreign countries to undermine Hong Kong’s financial situation,” the police alleged.
Among the eight who live in the UK is Nathan Law, the youngest person ever elected to Hong Kong’s legislature, who told the BBC he had to be “more careful” as a result of the orders.
Critics in Beijing have already expressed alarm at the existence of alleged Chinese police stations operating in democratic countries in Europe and North America. China has said they are “service centers” for Chinese citizens who need help with administrative tasks such as passport renewals.
UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said the arrest warrants were “yet another example of the authoritarian reach of China’s Extraterritorial Law“.
‘Haunted for life’
The NSL broadly criminalises activities seen as secession, subversion and collusion with foreign forces, and was introduced after mass pro-democracy protests swept the territory in 2019, some of which they returned violent.
Among its most prominent targets is media mogul Jimmy Lai, who was arrested shortly after the law was introduced and sentenced to five years in prison in December 2022 for fraud in a lease offices He faces trial on security charges in September, after it was delayed due to the presence of a UK-based lawyer in his defense team.
Its popular Apple Daily published its latest edition in June 2021.
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Canberra was “deeply disappointed” by the latest orders. Former lawmaker Ted Hui and lawyer Kevin Yam, who is also an Australian citizen, live in the country.
“We have consistently expressed concern about the broad application of the National Security Law to arrest or pressure pro-democracy figures and civil society,” Wong said in a statement.
Human Rights Watch said Hong Kong should immediately abandon the charges and rewards.
“The Hong Kong government is going above and beyond to persecute peaceful dissent both within Hong Kong and abroad,” Maya Wang, HRW’s Asia director, said in a statement. “Offering a cross-border reward is a feeble attempt to intimidate activists and elected representatives outside Hong Kong who stand up for people’s rights against Beijing’s growing crackdown.”
Writing on Twitter, Anna Kwok, one of three activists on the list who lives in the United States, thanked those who had highlighted the “transnational repression and extraterritorial enforcement of NSL displayed by the Hong Kong government today.”
Speaking on Tuesday, Chief Executive John Lee avoided criticism, telling reporters the eight would be “haunted for life”. They should “resign as soon as possible,” he added, according to Reuters news agency.
