Australia, UK, US condemn Hong Kong bounty for exiled activists
Al JazeeraPolice offer 1 million Hong Kong dollars for each of the activists whom they accuse of endangering national security. Hong Kong accuses the eight, including three former legislators, of “collusion with foreign forces” under the National Security Law, which Beijing imposed on the territory in 2020. The eight “committed serious crimes endangering national security, advocated sanctions, undermined Hong Kong and intimidated Hong Kong officials” as well as “schemed for foreign countries to undermine Hong Kong’s financial status,” the police alleged. “The Hong Kong government increasingly goes above and beyond to persecute peaceful dissent both within Hong Kong and abroad,” HRW’s associate Asia director Maya Wang said in a statement. “Offering a cross-border bounty is a feeble attempt to intimidate activists and elected representatives outside Hong Kong who speak up for people’s rights against Beijing’s growing repression.” Writing on Twitter, Anna Kwok, one of three activists on the list who lives in the US, thanked those who had highlighted the “transnational repression & NSL’s extraterritorial application displayed by the Hong Kong gov’t today”.