China yesterday defended bounties offered for the capture of Hong Kong dissidents who live abroad.
Rewards of HK$1 million (US$128,000) have been offered for information leading to the capture of 13 opposition figures accused of contravening Hong Kong’s National Security Law.
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Mao Ning (毛寧) said that the arrest orders were “necessary and justified and ... in line with international law and practice.”
Photo: Reuters
Foreign governments’ support for those on the list was merely cover for their aim of destabilizing Hong Kong, Mao told reporters at a daily briefing.
On Thursday, Hong Kong police accused five other overseas-based rights advocates of contravening the security law and offered rewards for their arrests.
The five “endangered national security by destabilizing Hong Kong under the guise of democracy and human rights,” Mao said.
The arrest warrants were issued for Johnny Fok (霍嘉誌) and Tony Choi (蔡明達), who host a YouTube channel focusing on current affairs, and democracy advocates Simon Cheng (鄭文傑), Hui Wing-ting (許穎婷) and Joey Siu (邵嵐).
Those on the wanted list are believed to be living in self-exile mainly in Britain, the US and Australia.
In July, Hong Kong warned eight other activists who now live abroad that they would be pursued for life with bounties put on them.
The US and British governments have denounced the arrest warrants and bounties as flying in the face of human rights and democratic norms.
Cheng wrote on X that he embraced the charges.
“Being hunted by China (Hong Kong)’s secret police, under a one-million-dollar bounty, is a lifelong honor,” he wrote.
Siu wrote on X that she would not be silenced.
“This morning I, a U.S. citizen, woke up to the news that an arrest warrant & a HKD $1 million bounty have been placed on my head by the Hong Kong govt. for exercising my freedoms in my own country,” she wrote.
“More to say later but for now: I will never be silenced, I will never back down,” she wrote.
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