Hong Kong targets dissidents abroad with bounties

Hong Kong’s top leader said on Tuesday that eight dissidents who had fled abroad would be “pursued for life” with large rewards for information leading to their prosecution.

The 1 million Hong Kong dollar ($128,000) reward reflects stepped-up efforts to pressure and intimidate influential activists who left Hong Kong after new strict law was introduced in 2020. The so-called national security law led to the arrest of 260 people, most of them accused for the act which took place in Hong Kong.

On Monday, police highlighted the extraterritorial effect of the rules, which criminalize activities that threaten China, even if they take place outside Hong Kong and mainland China. They said the defendant violated provisions of foreign conspiracy and incitement to secession.

The eight charged by police are activists Nathan Lowe, Anna Kwok and Finn Lau; two former legislators, Dennis Kwok and Ted Huey; attorney Kevin Yam; union leader Mung Siu-tat and businessman and YouTuber Elmer Yuen.

Ms. Kwok, head of the Hong Kong Democracy Council in Washington, remained defiant. “It encourages me to go faster and stronger,” she said in a telephone interview.

Can activists be extradited?

The government’s announcement that it is seeking to capture the eight raises the question of whether Hong Kong will turn to Interpol, the international law enforcement agency, for help in prosecuting dissidents. Ronnie Tong, a former lawmaker who works in the office of John Lee, Hong Kong’s chief executive, said extradition of foreign activists was unlikely.

“Hong Kong’s law is very strict in line with the UN Model Law on Extradition, which means we will not seek the extradition of people who commit political crimes or defendants with a political background,” he said in a phone interview.

At the same time, he added that activists may be detained when passing through “friendly countries”. And Hong Kong authorities can still request legal assistance from international authorities, such as information on the whereabouts of the eight individuals and their activities, which could be used for prosecution in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong police, asked if they would seek Interpol’s help, said on Tuesday that they would “take all necessary measures in accordance with the law to stop these fugitives”.

What drives arrest warrants and bounties?

Legal scholars said the charges and awards were designed to divide the exiled activists, isolate and stigmatize them as they campaigned for new laws in the United States, Britain and Australia in response to the crackdown in Hong Kong.

“The assumption is made that they are dangerous criminals, when in fact they are peaceful critics of the authoritarian turn of the Hong Kong government,” said Thomas E. Kellogg, executive director of the Asian Law Center. He added that the moves could backfire and instead put more pressure on governments to act against Hong Kong.

The awards were an extension of tactics used by Beijing to attack activists abroad, e.g Outposts of the Chinese police, – said Eric Lai, a visiting researcher at King’s College London Law School. Last March, the US Department of Justice five people were accused of espionage or intimidating Chinese American dissidents on US soil.

Hong Kong police have acknowledged the difficulty of arresting people living abroad in self-imposed exile, but have offered a $128,000 reward for information that can be used as evidence in local courts for the “successful prosecution” of each individual. One of the main tasks, the police added, was to ensure that authorities had enough evidence to charge the individuals if they voluntarily returned to Hong Kong.

“If they don’t come back, we won’t be able to arrest them, that’s a fact,” Lee Kwai-wa, the chief superintendent of police, told a briefing. “But we won’t stop harassing them.”

Hong Kong leader John Lee was more blunt. “The only way to end their escape fate, which will haunt them for the rest of their lives, is to surrender,” he said on Tuesday.

How have other governments responded?

The allegations have sparked outrage from officials in the United States, Britain and Australia, where eight people now live. The State Department called the extraterritorial application of the national security law “a dangerous precedent that threatens the human rights and basic freedoms of people around the world.”

Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong said the government was “deeply concerned” by the arrest warrants and would continue to speak out on human rights issues. “Freedom of speech and assembly is essential to our democracy and we support those in Australia who exercise these rights,” she wrote Twitter on Monday.

This was stated by British Foreign Minister James Cleverley statement on Monday that Britain “will not tolerate any attempt by China to intimidate and silence people in the UK and abroad”.

But the press secretary of Art Chinese Embassy in London accused British politicians of “open harboring of wanted fugitives” and in turn interfering in China’s internal affairs.