US Lawmakers Urge Blinken to Sanction Hong Kong Officials for Hunting Overseas Activists

Ranking Democratic member Raja Krishnamoorthi (R-Ill.) (R) speaks beside Chairman Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) (L) during a press conference with members of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party at the Cannon House Office Building in Washington on Nov. 15, 2023. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

A bipartisan group of lawmakers is urging the State Department to impose sanctions on Hong Kong and Chinese officials, following a decision by the city’s authorities to place bounties for information leading to the arrest of five overseas activists, including a U.S. citizen and a U.S. resident.

In a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Dec. 19, four congressmen—Reps. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), chairman and ranking Democratic member, respectively, of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), chair and co-chair, respectively, of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China—said the Hong Kong police’s bounties are the latest example of communist China’s transnational repression.

“The Hong Kong authorities’ egregious attempt to intimidate and silence U.S. nationals engaged in peaceful political activism in the United States is outrageous and cannot be met with inaction,” the lawmakers wrote.

“We urge the administration to take swift action and impose sanctions on the perpetrators of this reprehensible act of transnational repression.”

The Hong Kong Police Force announced on Dec. 14 that it was offering 1 million Hong Kong dollars (about $128,000) for each of the five activists—Simon Cheng, Johnny Fok, Tony Choi, U.S. citizen Joey Siu, and U.S. resident Frances Hui—accusing them of having committed various offenses, including “colluding with foreign forces” under the city’s national security law.

The Chinese regime imposed the national security law on Hong Kong in 2020 to silence political dissent, following months of anti-CCP, pro-democracy protests starting in June 2019. The law has had a chilling effect on the former British colony, resulting in the erosion of the city’s freedoms and a surge in the number of Hongkongers migrating to other countries, some seeking asylum.

According to the Washington-based advocacy group Hong Kong Democracy Council, at least 253 people had been arrested under Hong Kong’s national security law as of July 1.

“The United States considers [Hong Kong’s national security law] to be a brazen breach of the People’s Republic of China’s commitment to upholding Hong Kong’s autonomy and democracy,” the lawmakers wrote.

“The CCP has since unabashedly eroded civil liberties and political freedom in Hong Kong through their Hong Kong authorities as proxies.”

The lawmakers wrote that the United States “must not turn a blind eye to the CCP and Hong Kong authorities’ extending their long arm of repression onto U.S. soil and threatening the civil liberties practiced by persons living in the United States.”

Ms. Siu is currently an activist based in Washington and a staff member of the U.S.-based National Democratic Institute.

Mr. Cheng is a former UK consulate employee who was detained and tortured in China in 2019 because of his involvement in pro-democracy protests.

‘Act of Intimidation’

Ms. Hui, a policy and advocacy coordinator at the Committee for Freedom in the Hong Kong Foundation, was granted asylum in the United States in September 2021. She started her involvement in Hong Kong’s social movements when she was 13 and captured attention in 2019 after penning an article titled “I am from Hong Kong, not China.”

She applauded the lawmakers for making what she called an “important and timely call.”

“It’s the right thing to do. It’s been two years since the Biden administration has issued sanctions on responsible officials for undermining [the] rule of law in Hong Kong,” Ms. Hui told The Epoch Times on Dec. 20.

Frances Hui, policy and advocacy coordinator at the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation, during an interview with NTD in Washington on Dec. 15, 2023. Alex Martin for The Epoch Times

She said the bounties on her and four other Hongkongers show that Beijing has increased suppression of civil liberties and freedom not only in Hong Kong but also around the world.

“In particular, it was a retaliation for my advocacy calling for sanctions against Hong Kong officials and members of the judiciary,” Ms. Hui said. “This act of intimidation is just one of the many accounts of transnational repression and egregious human rights abuses conducted by China on Uyghurs, Tibetans, Hongkongers, and Chinese dissidents both inside China and abroad.”

She called on the Biden administration to “take steps to stop CCP’s transnational repression” to the “full extent of U.S. law.”

“If the administration chooses to stay silent, we will risk enabling more of it to happen to other Hongkongers and those who defend freedom and human rights,” Ms. Hui said.

The lawmakers named six Hong Kong and CCP officials and asked Mr. Blinken to determine before Jan. 19 whether they “meet the criteria for sanctions” per the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, the Hong Kong Autonomy Act, and former President Donald Trump’s executive order 13936.

The list of officials included Paul Lam, Hong Kong’s secretary for justice; Raymond Siu, Hong Kong’s commissioner of police; Maggie Yang, the city’s director of public prosecution; and Dong Jingwei, the director of the Office for Safeguarding National Security.

Mr. Blinken recently criticized Hong Kong authorities over the bounty list.

“We reject this attempt to threaten and harass those advocating for freedom and democracy,” he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Dec. 15.

Asked about the letter, the State Department told The Epoch Times, “As a general matter, we do not comment on congressional correspondence and we do not preview sanctions actions.”