Hong Kong national security law: John Lee says HK$1 million police bounties for 8 wanted activists will send world ‘strong message’ suspects to be hunted for a lifetime
- Chief executive calls for those, including relatives of suspects, with information on activists to come forward, vowing they will be rewarded
- China’s foreign affairs office in city warns external forces to stop harbouring criminals and supporting ‘pawns’
The announcement of arrest warrants for the eight activists sparked a fresh row between Beijing and the governments of countries where they live, with China’s foreign affairs office in Hong Kong on Tuesday warning “foreign forces” to stop harbouring criminals and supporting “pawns”.
“Police should do it because that’s the message not just to Hong Kong, but to those who try to endanger our national security. And we want them to know that we will not sit and do nothing,” Lee warned before the weekly meeting with his advisers in key decision-making body the Executive Council.
“We’ll be pursuing the [suspects’] criminal responsibilities for life until they surrender themselves.”
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The police force on Monday announced it was offering HK$1 million in reward money for information leading to each arrest of eight opposition figures – former legislators Nathan Law Kwun-chung, Dennis Kwok Wing-hang and Ted Hui Chi-fung, unionist Mung Siu-tat, lawyer Kevin Yam Kin-fung, and activists Finn Lau Cho-dik, Anna Kwok Fung-yee and Elmer Yuan Gong-yi.
But critics questioned the effectiveness of the bounty given the countries these activists live in – Australia, Britain and the United States – suspended extradition treaties with Hong Kong following Beijing’s imposition of the national security law on the city in 2020, with political crimes also usually exempted under such deals.