Chinese academic in Australia slams 'ridiculous' Hong Kong bounties
The bounties issued by Hong Kong range from about US$25,000 (S$32,000) to US$125,000, depending on the individual.
Sydney - An academic in Australia who was among 19 people that Hong Kong issued bounties for has criticised the 'ridiculous' arrest warrants and warned that the region was trying to exert its power beyond its borders.
Authorities from the Chinese city
announced cash rewards on July 25 for information leading to the arrest of 19 overseas activists involved in Hong Kong Parliament – a pro-democracy group established in Canada.
The bounties range from about US$25,000 (S$32,000) to US$125,000, depending on the individual.
Among those named was Prof Feng Chongyi, a China studies professor at the University of Technology Sydney.
'It's certainly ridiculous,' he told the Sydney Morning Herald in an interview published July 26.
'They've got the power, they've got the influence overseas, they want to control everything even overseas.'
Prof Feng told the publication he joined the group as an academic.
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'I feel very sad, I'm extremely upset that the autonomous Hong Kong has been destroyed,' he added. 'It's unbearable for me.'
'Hong Kong was such a beautiful, dynamic place – the best part of Chinese culture, the combination of the East and the West.'
The former British colony – handed back to China in 1997 – has seen political dissent quashed since Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law in 2020 following huge and at times violent pro-democracy protests.
Prof Feng, who has conducted research into China's pro-democracy groups, was detained for a week in China in 2017.
At the time, his lawyer said he was 'suspected of harming national security and could not leave China'.
The July 25 announcement of bounties was the fourth from Hong Kong authorities, which has previously drawn strong criticism from Western countries.
The bounties are seen as largely symbolic given that they affect people living abroad in nations unlikely to extradite political activists to Hong Kong or China.
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said on July 26 she strongly objected to the arrest warrants.
'Freedom of expression and assembly are essential to our democracy,' she said on social media platform X.
'We have consistently expressed our strong objections to China and Hong Kong on the broad and extraterritorial application of Hong Kong's national security legislation, and we will continue to do so.'
The UK also condemned the move as 'another example of transnational repression', according to a statement from British Foreign Secretary David Lammy and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper.
The Hong Kong government hit back on July 26, calling Britain's reaction 'untrue and biased'.
'Those absconders hiding in the UK and other Western countries are wanted because they continue to blatantly engage in activities endangering national security,' it said, demanding that Britain 'stop interfering in Hong Kong matters which are purely China's internal affairs'. AFP
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