Hong Kong’s Latest Intimidation Targets

Chief Executive John Lee claims Hong Kong is back and open for business, but the assault on the rule of law continues. The government has already put out bounties on eight dissidents in exile, and now its next target is their friends and family who remain.

Former lawmaker Nathan Law faces a bounty of HK$1 million, and Hong Kong police this month arrested five former members of Demosisto, the disbanded opposition party he helped found. Then recently officers questioned Mr. Law’s parents and his older brother.

On Tuesday officers questioned family members of Christopher Mung, an exiled labor activist who’s also on the bounty list. On Thursday Hong Kong police did the same to the family of Dennis Kwok, an exiled former lawmaker now hounded by the Communist Party. Family members’ homes were also raided.

Mr. Law told us in 2019 that his parents carefully avoided politics and “were very worried” about his pro-democracy activism. “They kept saying, ‘You cannot mess with the Chinese government, with the Communist Party. They are way more awful than you expect.’”

Those fears are being validated. Exiled dissidents’ family members are “suspected of assisting persons wanted by police to continue to commit acts and engage in activities that endanger national security,” the South China Morning Post reports, quoting an unnamed source. A Hong Kong police spokesperson told the Guardian that “relevant operations are still ongoing, and other law enforcement actions, including arrests, cannot be ruled out.”

Mr. Lee recently described Messrs. Law, Mung, Kwok and the five others facing bounties as “rats” who should surrender or “live in fear” forever. He added that the Hong Kong government would “exhaust all means” to pursue them.

Contrast this thuggish behavior to Mr. Lee’s remarks last week at a legal forum. According to a report in the state-run China Daily, he touted Hong Kong’s “free and open business environment,” and “said that the rule of law is of great significance” in protecting rights and “ensuring long-term prosperity.”

Yet the bounty on these dissidents is comparable to, or higher than, what Hong Kong has placed on suspected murderers, rapists and other violent criminals. The authorities shut down the pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily and seized its assets without due process. These are the risks to those who irritate the Communist Party—and apparently also their relatives. Whatever Mr. Lee says, anyone considering business in Hong Kong will have to consider carefully whether it’s safe to move a family into the city.