Calls are growing for the British government to take action to protect Hong Kongers in the country from the China’s “long-arm” law enforcement after the neighbors of two wanted pro-democracy activists received anonymous letters urging them to bring the activists to the Chinese Embassy in London.
The letters repeat the exact wording of Hong Kong police wanted notices offering bounties of HK$1 million (US$128,000) for the arrest of “fugitives” under national security legislation.
They were sent to people living near U.K.-based pro-independence activist Tony Chung and former district councilor Carmen Lau, they told RFA Cantonese in interviews last month.
“A reward of one million Hong Kong dollars is being offered by Hong Kong Police to any member of the public, who can provide information on this wanted person and the related crime or take him to Chinese embassy,” the letters read. The included a Hong Kong national security police email address where they could give information and claim their reward.
Both Lau and Chung have a HK$1 million (US$128,000) bounty on their heads and stand accused of “incitement to secession” by Hong Kong’s National Security Police, who are waging an ongoing crackdown on political opposition and public dissent.
Hong Kong authorities have vowed to pursue activists in exile for life, while jailing political activists at home for “subversion” and putting pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai on trial for “collusion with foreign powers” after articles in his now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper called for sanctions on Hong Kong.
Calls to protect Hong Kongers in the UK
The letters have prompted calls in the House of Commons for the British government to do more to protect more than 220,000 Hong Kongers who have come to live in the country under its British National Overseas lifeboat visa program.
“We have received assurances from counter-terror policing that the appropriate measures are in place for the individuals in question,” Minister of State for Security Dan Jarvis told members of Parliament in a debate on March 4.
“The continued safety of Hong Kongers remains a priority for this Government,” he said. “I want to be clear that we will not tolerate any attempts by foreign governments to coerce, intimidate, harass or harm their critics overseas, especially here in the U.K.”
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said the harassment of Hong Kongers on British soil was “completely unacceptable.”
“It is a gross infringement of the liberty of the individuals concerned and it is an affront to British sovereignty,” Philp said.
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Members of Parliament expressed frustration with the slow pace of planned measures that include a register of foreign influence, according to Jarvis, saying China’s planned mega-embassy in London will likely further enable “transnational repression” of activists on British soil by the Chinese authorities.
‘Pan-European base for spying’
Philp said the planned mega-embassy would “simply be used as a pan-European base for Chinese spying,” and called for China to be put in the enhanced tier of the foreign influence registration scheme.
“What concrete and tangible action is being taken to prevent these outrages?” he said.
Christine Jardine, the Liberal Democrat spokesperson for Scotland called for sanctions, as part of a stronger response to “stop more of our citizens and brave activists being threatened on British soil.”
Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat said there is a “pernicious undermining of the confidence in the British state and the credibility of our ability to protect our citizens and friends,” while former Conservative Party leader and MP Iain Duncan Smith said the letters amounted to “extraterritorial attacks in plain view.”
He called on Jarvis to reject the plans for the mega-embassy and “start arresting the people responsible and kicking them out of the country.”
Jarvis said the government is “working at pace” to implement the foreign interest registration scheme.
Ruling Labour Party MP James Naish cited the attack on Hong Kong protester Bob Chan at the Chinese Consulate in Manchester in 2022, warning that the mega-embassy “would be contributing to the transnational repression that Hongkongers, Tibetans and the wider Chinese diaspora in the UK experience.”
Chilling effect
Tony Chung said he planned to carry on as normal, but raised concerns it could have a chilling effect on overseas activists.
“It could cause fear and worry for some people who are doing advocacy work for Hong Kong overseas, or who organize Hong Kong-related activities,” Chung said after hearing about the letter targeting him. “This is what they are hoping to achieve.”
A Hong Kong government spokesperson told RFA Cantonese last month that the government “would not send anonymous letters,” and that anyone receiving one should seek help from the police where they live.
Leeds-based Chloe Cheung, the youngest of 19 overseas activists wanted by Hong Kong’s national security police, said she suspects she has been followed while in the United Kingdom.
“I just hope that when local people see such letters, they will know that they are the work of an overseas dictatorship engaged in transnational repression, rather than a real wanted notice from the British police,” she said.
China already has in place a global network for bringing home its nationals to face trial and imprisonment, including political prisoners.
Authorities in China captured and repatriated 1,597 people from overseas in 2024, as part of its “SkyNet” operation targeting Chinese nationals who flee the country.
The Spain-based rights group Safeguard Defenders estimates that nearly 14,000 people have been brought back to China from more than 120 countries under Beijing’s “Fox Hunt” and “SkyNet” operations since 2014.
“Covert means account for the vast majority of forced returns,” the group said in a March 4 report, saying the renditions were “in blatant violation of other countries’ sovereignty.”
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.