China Puts a Bounty on My Head

I left Hong Kong in 2020, amid the Chinese Communist Party’s crackdown, and now live in Australia. On July 3, the Hong Kong Police’s National Security Department issued arrest warrants and announced bounties of 1 million Hong Kong dollars (US$128,000) for information leading to my “successful prosecution” and that of seven other pro-democracy activists.

This isn’t the first time I’ve been targeted. During the 2019-20 protest movement, I was followed, struck by a car, assaulted with pepper spray and arrested on multiple charges. After I left, my accounts and credit cards at Hong Kong banks were frozen without explanation. In 2021, the Hong Kong authorities issued an arrest warrant for encouraging people to cast blank protest ballots in a municipal election that was rigged by Beijing. I was sentenced in absentia to 3½ years in prison.

In July 2020, Beijing enacted the Hong Kong National Security Law, which criminalizes “subversion,” “secession,” and “collusion with foreign forces.” The effect was to abolish the rule of law and free expression in Hong Kong. Pro-democracy leaders have been arrested and prosecuted. Civil-society organizations and independent labor unions have been forced to shut down. Books by dissidents have been removed from libraries and schools. Public commemorations of the Tiananmen Square massacre have ended. So far, 260 people, as young as 15 and as old as 90, have been arrested for national-security offenses that carry a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Now the Communist Party is using it to repress dissidents beyond China’s borders. Compare the HK$1 million bounty with the rewards offered for murderers (HK$300,000) and child rapists (HK$100,000).

More than 100,000 Hong Kong people have relocated abroad since 2019. Many are eager to speak for the jailed, persecuted and voiceless stranded in Hong Kong and have asked the international community to hold Chinese and Hong Kong government officials accountable for violating human rights in Hong Kong.

But now we know that any one of them can be in danger and can face terrible repercussions for speaking out. Using social media to advocate freedom and democracy in Hong Kong can be seen as seditious. Meeting politicians and attending government hearings can be regarded as colluding with foreign forces.

I hope leaders of free countries exert pressure on the Hong Kong government to stop harassing pro-democracy activists overseas. I urge them to reaffirm that these warrants and bounties are invalid in their jurisdictions and to reject any cooperation on National Security Law cases. The West should impose targeted sanctions on Hong Kong and Beijing officials implicated in the crackdown on democracy and human rights violations in Hong Kong. And democracies can enact security measures to reassure Hong Kong people that they will be safe in their new homes and protected from the Chinese government’s global intimidation campaign.

If free countries fail to defend their residents and stand up to the Chinese regime, Beijing’s thuggish behavior will only get worse. If better relations with Beijing mean acceding to repression in the West, that isn’t a price worth paying.

Mr. Hui served as a member of the Hong Kong Legislative Council, 2016-20.