Hong Kong police on Tuesday introduced a contemporary spherical of arrest warrants for six activists primarily based abroad, with bounties set at $1 million Hong Kong {dollars} for data resulting in their arrests.
In response to the warrants, the six are wished for nationwide safety offences equivalent to secession, subversion and collusion with international forces. They embody Tony Chung, the previous chief of now-defunct pro-independence group Studentlocalism.
U.Ok.-based Carmen Lau, a former district councilor and present activist with the Hong Kong Democracy Council, in addition to Chloe Cheung, an activist with the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong, additionally had warrants issued in opposition to them.
The most recent spherical of warrants alerts that the Hong Kong authorities is focusing on vocal critics primarily based overseas.
The federal government had beforehand issued two rounds of arrest warrants and bounties for extra distinguished activists, together with ex-lawmakers Ted Hui and Nathan Regulation.
The rising variety of wished people overseas come as Hong Kong continues to crack down on political dissent following huge anti-government protests in 2019 that resulted in a wave of pro-democracy actions. Many outspoken pro-democracy activists have since been jailed, with others fleeing overseas.
Chung, the previous Studentlocalism chief, mentioned in a narrative posted to Instagram that he was “honored” to be the primary Hong Konger to be accused of violating the nationwide safety legislation twice.
Get breaking Nationwide information
For information impacting Canada and all over the world, join breaking information alerts delivered on to you after they occur.
“As a staunch Hong Kong nationalist, right now’s wished discover is undoubtedly a sort of affirmation for me. Sooner or later, I’ll proceed to unswervingly and fearlessly promote the self-determination of Hong Kong,” he wrote.
Individually, Cheung, who is predicated within the U.Ok., mentioned in an Instagram submit that “even within the face of a strong enemy, I’ll proceed to do what I consider is correct.”
“How fragile, incompetent, and cowardly does a regime should be to consider that I, a 19-year-old, unusual Hongkonger, can ‘endanger’ and ‘divide’ the nation? How panicked are they that they should put a million-dollar bounty on me?” she requested.
Lau posted on X a name for governments, together with these of the U.Ok., U.S., and EU international locations, to “impose sanctions on Hong Kong human rights perpetrators with out additional delay” and urged democracies to assist Hong Kong’s proper to self-determination.
“The Hong Kong authorities’s newest spherical of arrest warrants and bounties in opposition to six Hong Kong activists is a cowardly act of intimidation that goals to silence Hong Kong folks,” mentioned Maya Wang, affiliate China director at Human Rights Watch.
“The six — together with two Canadian residents — stay within the U.Ok. and Canada. We name on the U.Ok. and Canadian governments to behave instantly to push again in opposition to the Hong Kong authorities’s makes an attempt to threaten Hong Kongers dwelling of their international locations.”
Tuesday’s arrest warrants take the overall variety of wished folks to 19.
Others on the listing Tuesday are Chung Kim-wah, beforehand a senior member of impartial polling group Hong Kong Public Opinion Analysis Institute; Joseph Tay, co-founder of Canada-based NGO HongKonger Station; and YouTuber Victor Ho.
Individually Tuesday, the Hong Kong authorities issued orders for the cancellation of passports belonging to seven “absconders”, together with ex-lawmakers Hui and Dennis Kwok, who’re wished beneath the safety legislation.
The orders had been made beneath Hong Kong’s home nationwide safety legislation — referred to as Article 23 — and likewise prohibits the seven from coping with funds in Hong Kong in addition to actions associated to joint ventures and property.
© 2024 The Canadian Press
Source link