Hong Kong’s national security police have announced arrest warrants for five overseas activists, placing HK$1 million bounties on their heads.
Police named Simon Cheng, Frances Hui, Joey Siu, Johnny Fok and Tony Choi as wanted for alleged offences under the national security law during a press conference on Thursday.
Cheng, 33, was accused of foreign collusion and inciting secession. Hui and Siu, both 24, stood accused of colluding with foreign forces.
Cheng, who is based in London, is the founder of Hongkongers in Britain, a group that supports Hongkongers settling in the UK. He was detained by Chinese authorities as he attempted to return to Hong Kong from a business trip in Shenzhen in August 2019, when protests engulfed the city, and was granted asylum by the UK government three years ago.
Hui and Siu are both based in Washington DC, in the US. Hui is a policy and advocacy coordinator at The Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation, while Siu works at NGO World Liberty Congress and was a former policy advisor at NGO Hong Kong Watch, according to her LinkedIn. Siu has US citizenship.
Fok, 42, and Choi, 46, were accused of inciting secession and inciting subversion, Chief Superintendent Steve Li of the force’s National Security Department said on Thursday.
“All of them, who have already fled overseas, have continued to commit the offence[s] under the national security law that seriously endanger national security, including incitement to secession, incitement to subversion, and collusion with foreign country or external elements to endanger national security,” Li said.
Police added that officers had arrested four people on Wednesday over links to activists Nathan Law and Ted Hui, who were among eight wanted people announced in July. The four, aged 29 to 68, were said to have provided financial assistance to Law and Hui via an online subscription platform between December 2020 and November 2023, with the amounts involved ranging from HK$10,000 to HK$120,000.
Li said Fok and Choi were involved in a case related to false claims of helping young people who had committed offences during the 2019 protests flee. They allegedly scammed them and their family members out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“Their behaviour was infuriating,” Li said.
The chief superintendent appeared to be referring to Tuesdayroad Media, a YouTube channel that local media reported last year was the subject of a national security investigation. Two YouTubers said in a video on the channel that they had provided HK$1 million for four Hong Kong fugitives facing charges over the 2019 protests.
Among the four was Tsang Chi-kin, a protester shot by police during clashes four years ago. They were caught by police in Sai Kung last July while en route to catch a boat to Taiwan.
“As the law enforcement agency in charge of protecting national security, the National Security Department has the responsibility to hold these people accountable to the law,” Li said, this time speaking Cantonese, adding that police would “investigate thoroughly.”
Asked by a reporter whether the police would seek the help of Interpol, Li said authorities would not “rule out anything.”
Beijing inserted national security legislation directly into Hong Kong’s mini-constitution in June 2020 following a year of pro-democracy protests and unrest. It criminalised subversion, secession, collusion with foreign forces and terrorist acts – broadly defined to include disruption to transport and other infrastructure.
The move gave police sweeping new powers, led to hundreds of convictions amid new legal precedents, whilst dozens of civil society groups disappeared. The authorities say it restored stability and peace to the city, rejecting criticism from trade partners, the UN and NGOs, despite an overall rise in crime.
8 arrest warrants already issued
In July, police named eight self-exiled pro-democracy figures as wanted, and similarly issued HK$1 million bounties. They were ex-lawmakers Ted Hui and Dennis Kwok; activists Nathan Law, Anna Kwok, Elmer Yuen, Mung Siu-tat and Finn Lau; and solicitor Kevin Yam.
It marked the first time such warrants – and such large bounties – had been issued.
That announcement came a week after an editorial in state-owned newspaper Ta Kung Pao cited Article 38 of the national security law, which states that the sweeping legislation applies to people outside the city. It added that China – as a member of International Criminal Police Organization, or Interpol – could request international cooperation from member countries to help apprehend fugitives.
Chief Executive John Lee said at the time: “The government will exhaust all lawful means to apprehend criminals endangering national security… [we] will pursue them for the rest of our lives even if they run to the ends of the earth,” said the chief executive.
The July arrest warrants were met with condemnation from Western governments and the United Nations, with UN experts quickly expressing “serious concern.”
In the months that followed, the homes of several Hong Kong-based family members of the overseas activists were raided and relatives questioned by national security police, including Law’s sister-in-law and the parents of Anna Kwok.
Corrections:
15/12/2023 at 10.42 am: An earlier version of this article misspelled Joey Siu's surname on one occasion. We regret the error.
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