Police in Hong Kong said they have arrested four men accused of funding dissidents who have fled overseas where they continue their activism. File Photo by Jerome Favre/EPA-EFE
July 6 (UPI) — Days after announcing bounties on eight self-exiled pro-democracy activists, Hong Kong police said officers have arrested four men accused of aiding dissidents who have fled overseas where they continue their protest activities.
The Hong Kong Police Force said the men, whose ages range from 26 to 28, are accused under a controversial national security law that criminalizes with heavy sentences vaguely defined acts of secession, sedition, subversion, terrorism and working with foreign agencies to undermine the national security of China.
According to a statement from the Hong Kong Police Force, the four men were arrested Wednesday throughout the city on suspicion of conspiracy to collude with a foreign country or with foreign elements that endanger national security and conspiracy to conduct acts with seditious intent.
Police said the men have supported demonstrators who have fled to foreign countries where they continue their pro-democracy activism with money they received via companies, social media and mobile applications, as well as having published posts “with seditious intention” on social media platforms that promote Hong Kong independence and hatred for central authorities and the Hong Kong government.
The suspects’ residences and offices were searched under the authorization of a court warrant, and documents as well as electronic devices were seized, it said.
“The arrested persons are being detained for further enquiries,” the statement said. “Police’s operation is ongoing and the likelihood of further arrests is not ruled out.”
The arrests were conducted after the Hong Kong Police Force announced arrest warrants and bounties of roughly $127,680 for each of Kevin Yam, 46; Yuan Gong-yi, 74; Anna Kwok Fung-yee, 26; Kwok Wing-hang, 45; Hui Chi-fung, 41; Mung Siu-tat, 51; Lau Cho-dik, 29; and Nathan Law Kwun-chung, 29.
All eight have been charged under the national security law, which has been described by critics as an attempt to chill dissident speech that was imposed in 2020 in response to mass pro-democracy protests that had rocked the city and brought it to a standstill.
Critics have accused the national security law of eroding the city’s mini-constitution as well as essentially ending the One Country, Two Systems framework Hong Kong has functioned under since its return from British to Chinese rule in 1997, which had afforded the city freedoms the mainland did not have.
The imposition of the national security law was met with sanctions from the United States and other democratic nations, including Britain, which also created a pathway to citizenship for millions of Hongkongers.
In announcing the bounties and arrest warrants, Steve Li Kwai-wah, chief superintendent of the national security department of the Hong Kong Police Force, told reporters that they have extraterritorial jurisdiction to pursue those overseas who violate the national security law.
In the statement Wednesday, Hong Kong police warned the public that the charges the four men face “are serious crimes” and that offenders “shall be liable upon conviction to imprisonment.”
“Members of the public are urged not to defy the laws,” it said.