Hong Kong locations arrest bounties on activists overseas for breaching nationwide safety regulation
HONG KONG — Hong Kong police accused 5 activists primarily based abroad of breaching a harsh nationwide safety regulation imposed by Beijing and supplied rewards of 1 million Hong Kong {dollars} ($128,000) on Thursday for data main to every of their arrests.
The growth additional intensified the Hong Kong authorities’s crackdown on dissidents after anti-government protests in 2019. Many main pro-democracy activists had been arrested, silenced, or compelled into self-exile after the introduction of the safety regulation in 2020, in an indication that freedoms promised to the previous British colony when it returned to China in 1997 had been eroded drastically.
But each Beijing and Hong Kong governments have hailed the safety regulation for bringing again stability to the semi-autonomous Chinese metropolis.
Arrest warrants had been issued for Johnny Fok and Tony Choi, who host a YouTube channel specializing in present affairs, and pro-democracy activists Simon Cheng, Hui Wing-ting and Joey Siu. Police refused to say something about their whereabouts, however their social media profiles and earlier media reviews indicated that they had moved to the United States and Britain.
In July, Hong Kong warned eight different activists who now stay overseas that they’d be pursued for all times underneath bounties placed on them. It was the primary such use underneath the safety regulation, and the authorities’ announcement drew criticism from Western governments.
Steve Li, chief superintendent of the police nationwide safety division, stated authorities acquired some 500 items of knowledge for the reason that final spherical of bounties was introduced. While among the data was helpful to the police, no arrest of the eight has but been made.
Li stated the 5 activists newly added to the needed record had dedicated varied offenses, together with colluding with overseas forces and incitement to secession.
“They all betrayed their own country and betrayed Hong Kong,” he stated within the information convention. “After they fled overseas, they continued to engage in activities endangering national security.”
Li stated authorities will attempt their finest to chop monetary help to the needed activists.
Police arrested 4 different individuals Wednesday on suspicion of funding former pro-democracy lawmakers Nathan Law and Ted Hui – two of the eight activists focused by the police in July – via an “online subscription and crowdfunding platform.” The 4 had been alleged to have supplied monetary help to others committing secession. The quantity concerned ranged from 10,000 to 120,000 Hong Kong {dollars} ($1,280 to $15,400).
Cheng wrote on X, previously often known as Twitter, that he embraced the fees. “Being hunted by China (Hong Kong)’s secret police, under a one-million-dollar bounty, is a lifelong honor,” he wrote.
Siu stated on X that she wouldn’t be silenced: “I will never back down.”
Sarah Brooks, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director for Greater China, stated the tactic of inserting bounties on activists seemed to be rising as a technique of option to silence dissent. Brooks referred to as for authorities to withdraw them.
“The placement of a bounty under the guise of national security charges is an act of intimidation that transcends borders,” she stated in a press release.
