Exclusive | Hong Kong national security law: ‘about 30 people overseas’ on the wanted list of police, including self-exiled ex-lawmakers Ted Hui and Baggio Leung
- Force insider says most of the suspects now in Europe, the US or Taiwan
- Another 40 have been arrested by police’s national security unit since legislation was imposed by Beijing on June 30
The force’s national security unit has so far arrested 40 people since the sweeping legislation was imposed by Beijing on June 30.
“[Those on the wanted list] are Hongkongers, but they are not in the city. Most of them are now in Europe, the United States and Taiwan,” a police insider said.
The source said the 30 included some overseas-based activists, while the others had left the city through legal immigration channels before or after the enactment of the law.
He said they were accused of inciting secession or collusion with foreign and external forces to endanger national security, or taking part in activities considered illegal under the new.
The source added that police were pursuing the suspects over remarks made or activities that took place after the imposition of the law, all offences carrying a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
With several Western countries cutting off extradition treaties with Hong Kong after the legislation came into force, the source said the suspects were unlikely to be sent home by overseas authorities and were now on the list of people wanted by police. They would be apprehended if they returned to the city, he said.
He revealed that among those on the wanted list were Leung, who left for the United States on November 30, and Hui, who is now in Britain after flying to Denmark in late November.
Former opposition lawmaker Ted Hui lands in London to begin self-exile
Baggio Leung vowed in an online press conference in Washington on December 12 that he would sustain the protest movement by lobbying the incoming Biden administration to extend sanctions to Hong Kong’s financial system. Leung served a month in jail in September for storming Legco in 2016 and said he left the city because of fears for his personal safety as he was tailed by “unknown agents” for months.
Hui, who fled while he was out on bail awaiting trial on charges stemming from last year’s anti-government protests, has pledged to dedicate himself to widening the “battlefront” for the city’s future on the international stage.
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In August, mainland state media CCTV reported the first six people listed as suspects under the new law included former legislator Nathan Law Kwun-chung, former British consulate employee Simon Cheng Man-kit and activist Ray Wong Toi-yeung.
The other three named by CCTV were: pro-independence advocate Wayne Chan Ka-kui; former member of the now-disbanded separatist group Studentlocalism, Lau Hong, who changed his name to Honcques Laus; and US-based Samuel Chu of the Hong Kong Democracy Council.
Former lawmaker Sixtus Baggio Leung is seeking asylum in the US
Cheng, Brian Leung and Wong are the founders of Haven Assistance, which announced Baggio Leung’s US asylum bid earlier this week.
In an opinion piece published on December 21 in British newspaper The Guardian, ex-lawmaker Law revealed he had submitted “an application for asylum” in Britain, about six months after he went into self-imposed exile in London. He left the city on June 27.
Law said he chose to stay in Britain because he hoped to “sound an alarm to remind” the country and Europe of the danger posed by the Communist Party to the values of democracy.
On June 30, Beijing imposed the national security law banning acts of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces. Critics have said the law seriously affected freedoms allowed in Hong Kong under the “one country, two systems” principle of governance that guarantees the city a high degree of autonomy.