Hong Kong police on Monday issued wanted notices for eight prominent overseas-based activists for alleged offences including foreign collusion and incitement to secession.
All of the accused fled Hong Kong after Beijing imposed a strict new national security law on the territory in 2020, in the wake of protracted anti-China pro-democracy protests.
Why are warrants being issued now?
The announcement came two days after the city celebrated the 26th anniversary of its handover from Britain to China and the third anniversary of the announcement of the national security law.
Police said the accused would have their assets frozen. They also warned the Hong Kong public that supporting any of the eight financially could risk violating the law.
“They have committed very serious offences that endanger national security,” said chief superintendent of the national security department, Steven Li.
“They advocated for sanctions to damage Hong Kong’s interests and intimidate Hong Kong’s officials with some targeting specifically some judges and prosecutors,” Li said.
The four accused are the activists Nathan Law, Anna Kwomk, former lawmakers Dennis Kwok and Ted Hui, the legal expert Kevin Yam, unionist Mung Siu-tat, and online commentator Yuan Gong-yi.
They are all accused of colluding with foreign forces to endanger national security — a crime that carries a sentence of up to life in prison.
Some also face charges of subversion, incitement to subversion, and secession.
Li admitted that police had little chance of arresting the activists if they remained abroad. “If they don’t return, we won’t be able to arrest them, that’s a fact,” he said. “But we won’t stop wanting them.”
What has changed in Hong Kong?
The national security law has drastically altered Hong Kong and the relative legal safety that residents of the former British colony once enjoyed compared with mainland inhabitants.
It allows designated police officers, prosecutors, and judges in Hong Kong to handle security cases, which can also be passed over to the opaque Communist Party-controlled justice system on the mainland.
At the press conference announcing the warrants, police said 260 people have so far been arrested under the law, with 79 convicted for offenses that included subversion and terrorism.
UK-based rights group Hong Kong Watch said Britain, the US, and Australia — each of which is hosting one or more of the accused — should issue statements to guarantee “the safety of those activists named and the wider Hong Kong community living overseas”
