Police in Chinese territory provide $130,000 rewards for data resulting in the arrest of six campaigners.
Hong Kong authorities have positioned bounties on six pro-democracy activists accused of harming nationwide safety within the newest crackdown to spotlight the narrowing house for dissent within the monetary hub.
The announcement by police on Tuesday is the third time authorities have provided rewards of 1 million Hong Kong {dollars} ($130,000) for data resulting in the arrest of pro-democracy advocates based mostly abroad.
The Chinese territory’s needed record now contains 19 campaigners accused of loosely-defined offences of secession, subversion or collusion.
Hong Kong’s Secretary for Security Chris Tang mentioned the activists had endangered nationwide safety by way of actions reminiscent of lobbying for sanctions in opposition to Hong Kong officers and judges.
The newly added activists embrace Tony Chung, the previous head of the pro-Hong Kong independence group Studentlocalism, Joseph Tay, founding father 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 on the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute, Victor Ho, a Canada-based YouTuber, and Chloe Cheung of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong.
“Since I fled, I’ve typically regretted not having the ability to serve my folks till the top,” Lau mentioned in a submit on X.
“Therefore, as a member of the diaspora and as a Hong Konger, I swear to place our struggle for Hong Kong earlier than the rest, even earlier than myself.”
Authorities additionally mentioned they’d cancelled the passports of seven activists beforehand added to the needed record, together with former Hong Kong legislator Ted Hui.
Once residence to a vigorous political opposition and one of many freest media environments in Asia, Hong Kong has criminalised virtually all dissent below robust safety legal guidelines launched in response to mass antigovernment protests in 2019.
Western governments and human rights teams have condemned the crackdown within the former British colony, whereas mainland Chinese and Hong Kong officers have defended the legal guidelines as essential to revive stability after 2019’s typically violent demonstrations.
None of the 19 on the needed record are more likely to be extradited to Hong Kong as they stay in Western nations which have expressed concern about diminishing rights and freedoms within the metropolis.
Kevin Yam, an Australia-based lawyer who was added to the needed record final July after being accused of colluding with a overseas energy, mentioned the most recent bounties would undermine the town’s efforts to revive its worldwide popularity, which was battered by the crackdowns and a number of the world’s hardest border controls throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
“What I’d say is that each time Hong Kong tries to relaunch itself, its authorities does one thing repressive to undermine all that,” Yam informed Al Jazeera.
“And they’re infantile sufficient to assume that in a 24-hour information cycle period, dumping ‘dangerous information’ on Christmas Eve could make issues look much less dangerous for them.”
