U.S.-based Hong Kong democracy activist Anna Kwok has vowed to go ahead with a planned demonstration against Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco on Wednesday despite a wave of online threats from supporters of Beijing.
Organizers are planning what they hope will be a large-scale event on Wednesday titled "Rise Up Against Xi, Biggest Unwelcome Protest" in San Francisco on Wednesday, according to a poster for the event posted to Kwok's X account.
The event is being jointly organized by the U.S.-based groups Hong Kong Democracy Council, Students for a Free Tibet, and the Uyghur American Association, according to the poster.
Kwok, who heads the Hong Kong Democracy Council, told Radio Free Asia that she has been targeted by "little pink" supporters of Beijing on X since she publicized the protest, which along with a reported Chinese security presence on the streets of San Francisco, is a further example of China's " long-arm" activities on foreign soil.
"Transnational repression by the Chinese Communist Party is getting more and more serious, and it's getting more and more aggressive," said Kwok, who is among eight prominent overseas activists placed on a wanted list with bounties on their heads by the Hong Kong police for alleged crimes under a draconian security law.
But she said the event will go ahead, and that she will attend regardless, adding that the FBI is currently investigating some of the online threats.
"We won't cancel because of this, because that would be admitting defeat," Kwok said. "We want more Hong Kongers to take part."
She said protesters will gather at 9.30 a.m. local time on Wednesday at the Chinese consulate, then march towards the APEC venue where Biden and Xi are scheduled to meet.
"This demonstration has united the Tibetans, Uyghurs, as well as anti-Xi and anti-communist organizations and forces to speak out in San Francisco," Kwok said.
She said the aim of the protest is to show the international community that "people who have been suppressed by the Chinese Communist Party won't give up."
Exact details of the meeting have been kept secret, and roadblocks have been set up around the venue, suggesting that both the U.S. and the Chinese governments are nervous about the event, Kwok said.
Bounty on eight exiles
Asked if she has fears for her personal safety following a deluge of online threats, including one comment calling on supporters to "drop her unconscious body off at the Chinese consulate," Kwok said she isn't the only activist being targeted.
"Of course I'm worried about my personal safety ... but I'm not the only one who has such worries," Kwok said.
A brief survey by Radio Free Asia of the attacks on Kwok revealed that the accounts were all set up during the past two years, and often reposted a graphic listing the eight overseas Hong Kong activists who have a bounty on their heads under the 2020 National Security Law, which criminalizes opposition activism and criticism of the authorities.
Some posts claimed the bounty -- actually HK$1 million -- was much higher, with some posts claiming it was as much as US$1 billion, or even US$10 billion.
A protest organizer has also reported being followed on the streets of San Francisco by plainclothes agents and security officers believed to have been dispatched from the Chinese consulate.
Exiled democracy activist Jie Lijian said he and his fellow activists were initially followed by a group of five or six men of Chinese descent who looked like plainclothes police or military officers in civilian clothing, just outside the APEC venue.
"The Chinese have been monitoring us, taking photos, and following us the whole time," Jie said from the scene. "Initially there were maybe five or six of them but now there are 30 or 40 of them."
He said the U.S. authorities also appear keen to ensure that Xi never comes face to face with any protesters during his U.S. visit, citing thick and high barbed-wire fencing around the venue to prevent people from approaching, but also likely to obscure any masks or banners they hold up.
Relatives in China harassed
Kwok isn't the only person being targeted as a result of the protest, according to an X post by U.S.-based activist Yao Cheng.
"The day before yesterday, my daughter was called in to drink tea with the state security police, who asked her to tell me not to go to San Francisco to take part in the [protest]," Yao wrote.
"Drinking tea" is a euphemism for interrogation by state security police, who have a track record of harassing the China-based relatives of political activists overseas.
"My daughter has nothing to do with this, and your inviting her to drink tea is actually a threat aimed at me -- don't do this," Yao said.
Maya Wang, acting China director at the New York-based Human Rights Watch, commented: "Biden needs to tell Xi that threatening dissidents’ families back home so they don’t protest against Xi’s visit *in the US* is transnational repression, and can’t be tolerated."
Yao went on to comment: "I want to tell the Anhui state security police that Xi Jinping has brought serious disaster to China and the rest of the world, and ... that most people within the [state] system are also its victims.”
"The reason I'm going to protest against Xi Jinping is to speak out on your behalf,” he wrote, adding: "China can't continue like this.”
Exiled former opposition lawmaker Ted Hui, who is also on the wanted list, said the bounties have made the activists into targets for "pro-Beijing people and little pinks."
"There has been an escalation from the verbal abuse of the past to advocating organized and planned actions to threaten and harm us," Hui said.
"If these threats aren't faced squarely now, they may one day become reality."
Translated with additional reporting by Luisetta Mudie .