Hong Kong police have introduced bounties of HK$1m (about £105,000) for data resulting in the arrest of six democracy advocates primarily based abroad and accused of nationwide safety crimes.
Authorities additionally mentioned they’d cancel the passports of seven others for whom bounties had already been issued, together with the previous lawmakers Ted Hui and Dennis Kwok, native media mentioned.
Political dissent in Hong Kong has been quashed since Beijing imposed a sweeping nationwide safety legislation in 2020 after big, typically violent pro-democracy protests the yr earlier than.
Many opposition figures fled overseas, whereas others have been arrested and sentenced to years in jail.
Tuesday’s announcement is the third time authorities have provided rewards of HK$1m for assist capturing these alleged to have violated the town’s nationwide safety legal guidelines.
The two earlier rounds of bounties in July and December final yr have been met with intense criticism from western nations, with Hong Kong and China in flip railing towards “interference” from overseas nations.
The bounties are seen as largely symbolic on condition that they have an effect on folks dwelling overseas in nations unlikely to extradite political activists to Hong Kong or China.
Five of the six folks focused on Tuesday are accused of inciting secession and collusion with a overseas nation or exterior forces. They vary from 29-year-old Carmen Lau, a former district councillor now dwelling in Britain, to the previous pollster Chung Kim-wah.
Victor Ho Leung-mau, a 69-year-old YouTuber now primarily based in Canada, is charged with subversion. “I simply discovered that I’m now a wished Hong Konger,” Lau wrote on X. “In 2019, [I] was not afraid of tear gasoline and bullets, and now I don’t and won’t again down solely due to an arrest warrant and a bounty.”
Hong Kong has beforehand cancelled the passports of different pro-democracy activists on its wished checklist below its second nationwide safety legislation enacted in March.
China’s overseas ministry mentioned on Tuesday it supported Hong Kong “performing its duties in accordance with the legislation”. “Hong Kong is a society ruled by the rule of legislation and nobody has extrajudicial privileges,” mentioned the ministry’s spokesperson, Mao Ning.
Human Rights Watch known as the bounties “a cowardly act of intimidation”. “We name on the UK and Canadian governments to behave instantly to push again towards the Hong Kong authorities’s makes an attempt to threaten Hongkongers dwelling of their nations,” the NGO’s affiliate China director, Maya Wang, mentioned in an announcement.
