Update at 10:47 p.m. He on 2023-07-03
Hong Kong police published arrest warrants on Monday and offered bonuses for eight activists and former legislators who fled the city, claiming that they are sought after in “serious crimes” under the Hong Kong National Security Act.
Police have appointed former pro-democracy legislators Nathan Law, Ted Hui and Dennis Kwok, a political activist and lobbyist based in the United States Anna Kwok and the legal scientist Kevin Yam among research, and offered bonuses of 1 million HK (US $ 127,700) to obtain information that could lead to arrests.
“We attach great importance to this case, and we therefore offer awards of $ 1 million in Hong Kong for each person sought,” said Superintendent in chief Steve Li.
He said that many members of the list had “recommended sanctions … to destroy or intimidate Hong Kong officials” or advisor to foreign countries to attack Hong Kong’s status as a financial center.
“We hope that the public will provide information on these people and their cases,” he said at a press conference in Hong Kong on Monday.
On Tuesday, the director general of Hong Kong, John Lee, followed a press conference saying that activists would be “prosecuted for life”, exhorting them to surrender as soon as possible “.
This decision is the latest example of the “long -term” police forces of China, which included police surveillance among the Chinese and their relatives abroad, including through “police stations” not approved in many countries.
Activists based in the United Kingdom Finn Lau and Mung Siu-Tat and the American businessman Elmer Yuen are also on the research list.
Those named face a multitude of accusations comprising “collusion with foreign powers” and “inciting subversion and secession” under a draconian law imposed in Hong Kong by the Communist Party following the 2019 protest movement which effectively prohibits public dissent and peaceful political opposition.
“ Absolutely bad ”
Law, 29, a former student leader of the 2014 UNGUST Movement who, at 23, was the youngest person to be a member of the city’s legislative council following a landslide victory in the 2016 general elections, is sought for “incentive to secession” and to “foreign collusion to foreign forces to endanger national security”, Ngan told repairers.
Law, who obtained political asylum in the United Kingdom, said that the news was “stressful” and that he should be more careful about where he had chosen to travel in the future.
In the comments published on his Facebook page, he said that the accusations against him were an abuse of national security terminology, an attempt to remove dissent and denied having received foreign funding of any kind.
“The right to work on any peaceful political initiative should be guaranteed in a civilized country,” said Law. “The only conclusion is that the national security law is absolutely bad.”
Anna Kwok tweeted in response: “I just woke up to see that I want with an HKD generosity of $ 1 million on my head. Our work at @HKDC_US continues, stronger and stronger.”
She called US President Joe Biden not to authorize Hong Kong Managing Director John Lee in the United States for a next economic cooperation meeting in Asia-Pacific, or APEC in San Francisco in November.
On Monday evening, the US State Department sentenced the Hong Kong police forces for putting “an international bonus” on pro-democracy activists.
“The extraterritorial application of the national security law imposed by Beijing is a dangerous precedent that threatens human rights and fundamental freedoms of people around the world,” spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.
“We call on the government of Hong Kong to immediately withdraw this premium, to respect the sovereignty of other countries and to stop the international affirmation of the National Security Act imposed by Beijing,” said the State Department, adding that it continues to oppose “efforts of transnational repression”, by the People’s Republic of China and supports the rights of individuals to the expression and peaceful assembly.
“Sweet confrontation”
Ted Hui, 41, based in Australia, whose assets were frozen by HSBC in January 2021 after having fled the city, is wanted on the same accusations in the context of “pleading several times for independence” for Hong Kong and the Democratic Island of Taiwan on social media.
This decision has occurred after an article in the Power in Chinese Communist sustained Your kung pao The newspaper called on China to use Interpol’s interpreting system to try to understand people abroad for breaking the national security law, which applies to speech and acts of the whole world regardless of the nationality of a person.
The head of security, Chris Tang, who was police chief during the 2019 protest movement, also warned in an interview with the newspaper that anyone engaged in a “sweet confrontation”, including online comments all over the world, could be targeted by the authorities under the law.
“The endangerment of national security is a very serious offense,” a spokesman for the government of Hong Kong said on Monday. “Fugitives should not have an illusion that they could escape their legal responsibilities by dissipating themselves from Hong Kong.”
A police press release said anyone helping, encouraging or financing any person accused under the law, including online, could also be targeted in the future.
The arrest mandates were issued after demonstrators gathered in overseas cities on weekends to mark the third anniversary of the law, set up on July 1, 2020, and to cry those who died during the 2019 protest movement against the erosion of promised freedoms of Hong Kong.
Memorial for those who died
Hong Kongers of Taipei organized a commemorative service for those who died during the demonstrations, placing flowers in front of portraits of those who died.
A former demonstrator who now lives in Taiwan said that he had escaped the city only because the national security law had not yet been implemented at the time of his arrest, which means that he was endorsed – now very unusual under the law – and was able to flee.
“Once the national security law has been adopted … There was no more justice – it is an outgoing government,” said the demonstrator. “He destroyed the equity and the spirit of the rule of law.”
Meanwhile, demonstrators gathered in London on Saturday to mark the death of Leung Kin-Fai, who died after stabbed on July 1, 2021, after giving a non-deadly stab wound to a police officer outside the Sogo department store because of the Bay.
“I do not want to talk about it, but I do not forget,” said a demonstrator at Radio Free Asia on the scene, where many participants wore masks and caps in an apparent attempt to avoid reprisals against beings at home or the attacks of Beijing supporters on British soil.
A demonstrator who only gave the nickname that I told the crowd that the recent repression against dissent to Hong Kong had given the lie to Beijing promises that the city would be authorized to keep its traditional freedoms within the framework of its framework “One Country, Two Systems” after the 1997 labor to Chinese domination.
The anniversary of transfer was marked in Hong Kong by a red flag arrow mass in the city center and in the fervers tracks.
The police have carried out more than 1,000 arrests under the law, with thousands of other targeting the former demonstrators under the public order of the colonial era and the laws on sedition.
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.
Updated with the comments of the CEO of Hong Kong, John Lee,