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China has accused the UK and US of “harbouring criminals” after both governments condemned Hong Kong authorities for issuing bounties totalling $1mn this week for eight exiled political activists.
China’s foreign ministry on Tuesday lashed out at the countries for “blatantly slandering Hong Kong’s national security law and interfering with the rule of law and normal law enforcement” in the territory.
“We caution external foreign forces to immediately stop harbouring criminals and taking advantage of ‘pawns’ who attempt to disrupt Hong Kong and contain China,” the ministry’s arm in Hong Kong said in a statement.
The UK foreign secretary and the US state department hit out at Beijing for threatening the rights of exiled Hongkongers and the “extraterritorial reach” of a national security law that Beijing imposed on the territory in 2020 in the wake of citywide pro-democracy protests.
Hong Kong police on Monday announced a bounty of HK$1mn (US$128,000) each — higher than the reward for several wanted arsonists and murderers — for information leading to the arrests of eight self-exiled activists, who have been accused of offences including secession and colluding with foreign forces.
The activists, who are based in the UK, US and Australia, include Nathan Law, Hong Kong’s youngest-ever lawmaker and one of the most prominent pro-democracy figures, as well as ex-lawmakers Dennis Kwok and Ted Hui, and Kevin Yam, an Australian citizen and commercial lawyer.
UK foreign minister James Cleverly said the country “will not tolerate any attempts by China to intimidate and silence individuals in the UK and overseas”. The US state department called for an immediate withdrawal of the bounties, saying that they set a “dangerous precedent that threatens the human rights and fundamental freedoms of people all over the world”.
Australia’s foreign affairs minister Penny Wong said that Canberra had “consistently expressed concerns about the broad application of the national security law to arrest or pressure pro-democracy figures”.
The move to target dissidents overseas comes as Hong Kong’s government seeks to reboot the territory’s pandemic-hit economy by wooing foreign business and talent, after three years of tough Covid-19 curbs and the political crackdown prompted an exodus of more than 140,000 from the workforce.
More than 10,000 people were arrested during Hong Kong’s anti-government protests in 2019 and about 260 have been arrested under the national security law, which carries the maximum penalty of life imprisonment, including businesspeople and journalists.
Chinese authorities have in effect silenced opposition in the city following the protests, dismantling civil society and shutting down independent media outlets. Large-scale protests have disappeared, patriotic curriculums have been introduced in schools and the city’s legislature is now filled with uniformly pro-Beijing lawmakers.
In a statement on Tuesday, China’s embassy in London accused UK politicians of “using these anti-China disrupters to jeopardise China’s sovereignty and security”.
The announcement of the bounties came less than two weeks after state-backed Ta Kung Pao newspaper called for authorities to apprehend the exiled activists, who denounced the move.
“I ask Hongkongers not to co-operate with any related pursuit or bounty actions,” Nathan Law wrote on Twitter. “We should not limit ourselves, self-censor, be intimidated, or live in fear.”
John Lee, Hong Kong’s leader, warned the eight figures on Tuesday that “the only way to end their destiny of being an abscondee . . . is to surrender”, warning that they would be “pursued for life”.
“You never know,” Steve Li, chief superintendent of the Hong Kong Police Force’s national security department, said at a press conference. “Maybe some day they will come back to Hong Kong through other illegal means. That kind of information should be very useful for us.”
Additional reporting by Yuan Yang in London
