UK Rights Advocates Condemn Hong Kong National Security Police Over Bounties for Pro-Democracy Activists

Chief Superintendent of Police (National Security) Li Kwai-wah speaks during a press conference to issue arrest warrants for eight activists in Hong Kong on July 3, 2023. Joyce Zhou/Reuters

Human rights advocates in the UK condemned Hong Kong’s national security police on Monday after the force issued arrest warrants and bounties against eight exiled pro-democracy activists in the UK, the United States, and Australia.

Benedict Rogers, chief executive of Hong Kong Watch (HKW), and Mark Sabah, UK and EU Director of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation, both condemned the targeting of activists and said it was “no coincidence” that the announcement came two days after the third anniversary of the imposition of the National Security Law in Hong Kong by Beijing.

Lord Alton of Liverpool has submitted a question to Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, asking him to respond to the situation.

The National Security Department of the Hong Kong Police Force on Monday issued a wanted list of former legislative councillors Dennis Kwok, Ted Hui, and Nathan Law; pro-democracy activists Anna Kwok, Mung Siu-tat, Finn Lau; lawyer Kevin Yam; and businessman Elmer Yuen.

Law, Lau, and Mung currently reside in the UK. Yuen, Dennis Kwok and Anna Kwok are in the United States. Yam and Hui have moved to Australia.

Steve Li, chief superintendent of the national security police, told reporters the individuals committed “serious violations of national security offences,” allegedly advocating for the sanctioning of Hong Kong officials and advising foreign countries on undermining Hong Kong’s status as a financial hub.

Photos of eight activists who have been issued arrest warrants over national security are displayed during a press conference in Hong Kong on July 3, 2023. Joyce Zhou/Reuters

Li cited sections 37 and 38 of the National Security Law, which expands its application to non-Hong Kong residents outside of Hong Kong, and announced a bounty of  1 million Hong Kong dollars (£100,641 or $127,654) for each individual.

He also called on the individuals to turn themselves in.

HKW said it’s the first time that arrest warrants and bounties have been issued in relation to overseas activity related to the National Security Law.

In a statement, Rogers urged the governments in the UK, the United States, and Australia to issue statements “guaranteeing the safety of those activists named and the wider Hong Kong community living overseas,” and urged “likeminded governments to suspend the remaining extradition treaties with the People’s Republic of China and Hong Kong, and for coordinated action to introduce an Interpol early warning system to protect pro-democracy activists overseas.”

Campaigner Benedict Rogers speaks at a rally for democracy in Hong Kong at Trafalgar Square in London on June 12, 2021. Laurel Chor/Getty Images

Lord Alton: Bounty Hunting Is Illegal

In an email to The Epoch Times, Alton said anyone who gets involved in bounty hunting “must be prosecuted.”

“Bounty hunting is illegal in the UK and anyone who becomes involved in it must be prosecuted. Putting a price on the head of people who sought and have received sanctuary in countries like the UK is outrageous,” he said.

“Bounty hunting smacks of the rough justice associated with the Wild West, Billy the Kid, ‘dead or alive’ posters and hired guns. It should have no place in any civilised system of justice.”

Alton said the bounty shows “contempt of basic principles of law and of due process” and will “undoubtedly put at risk highly respected lawmakers whose only crime is to believe in democracy.”

“I hope that those judges and lawyers who continue to lend respectability to Hong Kong’s discredited legal system will finally withdraw from its administration and denounce Hong Kong’s National Security Law and the many excesses which accompany it,” he said.

Activists: Won’t Be Stopped by Another Warrant

Law was accused of allegedly inciting secession and undermining national security by colluding with foreign forces.

He dismissed the accusation, saying the charge is another “typical case” of abusing the concept of national security to silence dissent.

“The right to undertake any peaceful political advocacy should be protected,” Law wrote in a statement on Facebook. “Those on the list have all been advocating for Hongkongers’ right to democracy, freedom, and basic rights, if these are seen as violations of the national security law, we can only conclude that the law is absolutely evil.”

Former Hong Kong Legislative Council member Nathan Law spoke at a rally in London. Shan Lam/The Epoch Times

He challenged Li to publish evidence of his alleged collusion with the so-called foreign forces, saying he had never accepted any foreign funding, worked for, or taken orders from a foreign government.

Law said he would exercise caution to avoid risks and hopes others would remain safe, and called on Hongkongers not to be complicit in the attempt to arrest activists. “We shouldn’t censor or restrict ourselves, submit to intimidation or extortion, and live our lives in fear,” he said.

In 2021, it was revealed that bounties of £10,000 were offered on the Chinese-owned instant messaging app WeChat to anyone who could provide Law’s address or workplace or the information of another Hong Kong community leader, Simon Cheng.

Simon Cheng (front left) and Finn Lau (center) in a March commemorating the second anniversary of Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement in London on June 12, 2021. Yanning Qi/The Epoch Times

In reaction to the press conference on Facebook, Lau said the Chinese Communist Party staged the high-profile drama because there’s little it can do overseas, “particularly after 2020 when democracies in Europe and North America suspended their extradition treaties with Hong Kong.”

Lau, who was previously arrested by police in Hong Kong and brutally assaulted in the UK by unidentified men, said while the risk of danger may be dramatically increased, he has nothing left to fear.