Hong Kong police on Tuesday announced a new round of arrest warrants for six pro-democracy activists based abroad, with bounties set at 1 million Hong Kong dollars, or about $129,000, for information leading to their arrests.
The six activists are wanted on charges that include secession, subversion and collusion with foreign forces. The move underscores how the government of Hong Kong — which is a special administration region of China — targets activists living in exile in retaliation for their work.
The six include Chloe Cheung, a 19-year-old activist with the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong; Carmen Lau, a former district councilor and current activist with the Hong Kong Democracy Council; and Tony Chung, the former leader of the now-defunct pro-independence group Studentlocalism.
“Fear cannot restrain me. Suppression cannot silence me. I will wear this burden with pride and without fear,” Cheung, who is based in the United Kingdom, wrote in a statement on Tuesday.
Lau said she would not let the arrest warrant and bounty deter her work.
“I have always considered serving Hong Kongers and fighting for freedom and democracy my lifelong obligation,” she said in a statement on social media platform X.
“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,” Lau added.
Others on the list Tuesday include Chung Kim-wah, a former member of independent polling organization Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute; Joseph Tay, co-founder of Canada-based group HongKonger Station; and YouTuber Victor Ho.
The Hong Kong government has previously issued two rounds of arrest warrants and bounties for prominent pro-democracy activists, including ex-lawmakers Ted Hui and Nathan Law, and activists Anna Kwok, Joey Siu and Frances Hui.
The latest arrest warrants bring the total number of wanted people to 19.
Government orders passports canceled
In a separate move on Tuesday, the Hong Kong government also issued orders for the cancellation of passports belonging to seven “absconders,” including Kwok, who leads the Hong Kong Democracy Council; Siu, a prominent activist; and Frances Hui, with the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong.
“Our crime? Calling on the world to hold the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] accountable for violating the autonomy of our home,” Frances Hui said in a Tuesday statement on X. She made the statement in solidarity with her colleague Cheung.
The passports of former Hong Kong lawmakers Ted Hui and Dennis Kwok also were canceled.
The orders were made under Hong Kong’s domestic national security law, which is known as Article 23.
“This is one of the first instances in which Hong Kong authorities have utilized one of the provisions in Article 23,” Siu said in a post on X. “The international community must continue to monitor its use and implications closely. And of course, please continue to watch our friends who are still in prison.”
Siu, who is an American citizen, also called on the U.S. government to do more to help exiled Hong Kongers who are targeted with transnational repression.
Group calls charges ‘absurd’
The free expression group Article 19 condemned the arrest warrants and passport cancellations as “an outrageous escalation in transnational repression against overseas Hong Kongers.”
“These absurd, arbitrary charges only serve to further drive home the farce of Hong Kong authorities claiming to follow the rule of law,” Michael Caster, the head of Article 19’s China program, said in a statement on Tuesday.
Hong Kong’s Security Bureau did not immediately reply to VOA’s email requesting comment.
The arrest warrants and passport cancellations come as the trial against pro-democracy publisher Jimmy Lai continues in Hong Kong. The trial is widely viewed as a politically motivated sham. Lai, 77, rejects the national security charges against him.
Some information in this report came from Reuters and The Associated Press.
