Hong Kong has imposed arrest warrants and HK$1m bounties on six pro-democracy campaigners, including a 19-year-old living in the UK after fleeing the city.
Seven others have had their Hong Kong passports revoked as the city cracks down on those it deems to have violated national security laws introduced in 2020 after protests the year before.
It brings the total of exiled Hong Kongers with arrest warrants and bounties worldwide to 19.
Activist Chloe Cheung, 19, said she was woken up “by dozens of people phoning and texting me” overnight as the Hong Kong authorities held a news conference at which she and five others were named in a new list of people with HK$1m (£102,663) bounties on their heads.
She is accused of “incitement to secession” and “collusion with a foreign country or with external elements to endanger national security”.
Official documents say this is for publishing articles as a “core member” of the US-based Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation, giving speeches and posting on social media “advocating separating Hong Kong from China and requested foreign countries to impose sanctions or blockade, engage in other hostile activities against China and Hong Kong”.
Ms Cheung said she fled Hong Kong in 2020, aged 15, to finish school in the UK after going to protests as a teenager where she “faced tear gas and batons and bullets from the Hong Kong police”.
“Today, in my adopted UK home, I’ve endured constant threats, both online and physical. But this didn’t stop me from speaking out and now I have a bounty on my head,” she said.
“Fear cannot restrain me. Suppression cannot silence me. I will wear this burden with pride and without fear.”
She has called for the British government to “finally stand with the people of Hong Kong” to take “real action to protect us from transnational repression on British soil”.
Hong Kong activist Tony Chung, 23, at a rally in London earlier this year, has had a bounty placed on him. Pic: Reuters
Lord Patten, the last governor of Hong Kong and a patron of UK-based Hong Kong Watch, said the Hong Kong government’s “relentless pursuit of pro-democracy activists beyond its borders is a blatant overreach that disregards international norms”.
He also called on the UK, US and Canadian government to “act decisively and in concert to shield these activists from transnational repression, ensuring their safety and standing firm against Beijing’s attempts to undermine the very democratic values we hold dear”.
Hong Kong security secretary Chris Tang said the six are accused of inciting secession, subversion and collusion with foreign forces.
He said the pro-democracy campaigners had engaged in activities including giving speeches, posting on social media and lobbying for Hong Kong officials and judges to be sanctioned by foreign governments which had endangered national security.
Li Kwai-wah, chief superintendent of Hong Kong’s national security department, said: “These six people’s backgrounds are the same.
“They have absconded from Hong Kong, but still flagrantly established or joined some organisations to continue their action to threaten national security.”
China’s office for safeguarding national security in Hong Kong said it supported the actions as those six people had engaged in “anti-China” and destabilising acts.
Protesters clash with riot police during a protest to demand democracy and political reforms in Hong Kong in August 2019. Pic: Reuters
The other three based in the UK are:
• Chung Kim-wah, 64, commentator and former pollster
• Tony Chung, 23, former head of a pro-independence group who fled to the UK last year after serving four years in prison for a national security offence
• Carmen Lau, 29, a member of the Hong Kong Democracy Council and former district councillor
Canada-based former actor Joseph Tay, 62, and YouTuber Victor Ho, 69, have also had bounties placed on them.
The seven who have had their passports cancelled all had HK$1m bounties placed on them last year and are based in the US and Australia.
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The arrest warrants and passport cancellations come a month after 45 activists were jailed for up to 10 years in Hong Kong for conspiracy to commit subversion, in what was seen as a landmark national security trial.
Former district councillor Ms Lau wrote on X: “[I] will not back down only because of an arrest warrant and a bounty. And I hope to have every one of you standing with me in this fight for Hong Kong.”
Megan Khoo, policy director of UK-based Hong Kong Watch, condemned the move and said the acts “are clear attempts of transnational repression, designed to silence dissent and extend the reach of authoritarian control beyond Hong Kong’s borders”.
She called on the UK, US, Canadian and Australian governments to “urgently respond” by imposing sanctions on the Hong Kong officials responsible and strengthening measures to counter “extraterritorial intimidation”.
Sky News has requested a comment from the UK’s Foreign Office.