Hong Kong’s prime chief mentioned Tuesday that eight dissidents who had fled abroad can be “pursued for life” with giant rewards being provided in trade for data resulting in their prosecution.
The rewards of 1 million Hong Kong {dollars} ($128,000) mirror a stepped-up effort to stress and intimidate influential activists who left Hong Kong after a stringent new legislation was imposed in 2020. The so-called nationwide safety legislation has resulted within the arrests of 260 individuals, the vast majority of them accused for actions that came about in Hong Kong.
On Monday, the police emphasised the extraterritorial attain of the rules, which criminalize actions endangering China, even when they’d taken place exterior Hong Kong and mainland China. They mentioned the accused had violated provisions on international collusion and inciting secession.
The eight who had been charged by the police are the activists Nathan Law, Anna Kwok and Finn Lau; two former lawmakers, Dennis Kwok and Ted Hui; a lawyer, Kevin Yam; a union chief, Mung Siu-tat, and the businessman and YouTuber Elmer Yuen.
Ms. Kwok, the pinnacle of the Hong Kong Democracy Council in Washington, remained defiant. “It’s encouraging me to go faster and stronger,” she mentioned in a telephone interview.
Could the activists be extradited?
The authorities’s announcement that it was searching for to grab the eight raises the query of whether or not Hong Kong would enchantment to Interpol, the worldwide legislation enforcement clearinghouse, for assist in pursuing the dissidents. Ronny Tong, a former lawmaker who serves within the cupboard of John Lee, Hong Kong’s chief govt, mentioned that the extradition of abroad activists is unlikely.
“Hong Kong law follows very strictly the U.N. model law on extradition, which means that we will not seek extradition of people committing political offenses or defendants who have a political background,” he mentioned in a telephone interview.
He added, nonetheless, that the activists might be detained when passing via “friendly nations.” And Hong Kong authorities might nonetheless request authorized help from worldwide our bodies, like intelligence on the whereabouts of the eight people and their actions, which might be used to prosecute them in Hong Kong.
The Hong Kong police, requested if it might search Interpol’s assist, mentioned in an announcement Tuesday that it might “take all necessary measures in accordance with the law to stop those absconders.”
What’s driving the arrest warrants and bounties?
Legal students mentioned the costs and bounties had been supposed to sow division among the many exiled activists, isolating and stigmatizing them as they agitated for brand new legal guidelines within the United States, Britainand Australia responding to Hong Kong’s crackdown.
“The suggestion is being made that they are dangerous criminals, when in fact they are peaceful critics of the Hong Kong government’s authoritarian turn,” mentioned Thomas E. Kellogg, the chief director of the Center for Asian Law. He added the strikes could backfire and as an alternative put higher stress on governments to behave towards Hong Kong.
The bounties had been an extension of ways utilized by Beijing to focus on activists abroad, equivalent to Chinese police outposts, mentioned Eric Lai, an professional on Hong Kong legislation. Last March, the U.S. Justice Department charged 5 individuals with spying on or intimidating Chinese American dissidents on U.S. soil.
The Hong Kong police acknowledged the issue of arresting people residing overseas in self-imposed exile, however they provided the $128,000 bounty in trade for data that might be used as proof in native courts for the “successful prosecution” of every particular person. One of the first goals, the police added, was to make sure that authorities obtained adequate proof to cost the people ought to they voluntarily return to Hong Kong.
“If they don’t return, we won’t be able to arrest them — that’s a fact,” Li Kwai-wah, the chief police superintendent, mentioned at a news briefing. “But we won’t stop pursuing them.”
Hong Kong’s chief, John Lee, put it extra starkly. “The only way to end their destiny of being an abscondee who will be pursued for life is to surrender,” he mentioned on Tuesday.
How produce other governments responded?
The expenses prompted an outcry from officers within the United States, Britain and Australia, the place the eight people now stay. The State Department referred to as the extraterritorial utility of the nationwide safety legislation “a dangerous precedent that threatens the human rights and fundamental freedoms of people all over the world.”
Australia’s international minister, Penny Wong, mentioned the federal government was “deeply concerned” by the arrest warrants and would proceed to talk out on human rights points. “Freedom of expression and assembly are essential to our democracy and we support those in Australia who exercise those rights,” she wrote on Twitter on Monday.
Britain’s international secretary, James Cleverly mentioned in an announcement on Monday that Britain “will not tolerate any attempts by China to intimidate and silence individuals in the U.K. and overseas”.
But a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in London accused British politicians of “open sheltering of wanted fugitives” and in flip meddling in China’s inside affairs.
Source: www.nytimes.com