Hong Kong is on the hunt for activists abroad. This one isn’t backing down

Bounties placed on pro-democracy activists by Hong Kong show some of the "worst fears" are coming true after the imposition of a 2020 national security law, experts say.

Hong Kong activist Elmer Yuen seems to be in a good mood despite a bounty out for his arrest. He is one of eight pro-democracy advocates that the region’s authorities are now targeting under a contentious national security law introduced in 2020, even though he now lives abroad.

“I don’t feel threatened,” said Elmer Yuen, a venture capitalist speaking to Global News from Los Angeles. “(Chinese President Xi Jinping) is more scared than I am.”

Hong Kong has placed an arrest warrant for Yuen, along with Nathan Law, Ted Hui, Dennis Kwok, Kevin Yam, Mung Siu-tat, Finn Lau and Anna Kwok. All eight are now living abroad in the United States, Britain and Australia, but some including Kwok and Law have professional or familial ties to people in Canada.

Despite the eight activists living abroad, they are still being chased for their opposition to the national security law that authorizes Chinese authorities to operate in Hong Kong and attempts to criminalize actions outside the city, claiming criticism or dissent from abroad is a crime.

The law defines four offences that clearly target any dissident of the Communist Party of China (CCP). The offences include advocating for Hong Kong’s independence, the “subversion of state power,” terrorism, and collusion with foreign forces.

Article 38 of the law also says that anyone around the world can be charged — though it would need cooperation from other countries to carry out extradition requests if it does so.

Still, the attempt to impose the law extraterritorially is worrying, experts say.

“In the three years since the law came into effect, it’s quite clear that the worst fears many observers had in 2020 have now been realized,” said Jeff Nankivell, the president and CEO of think tank the Asian Pacific Foundation of Canada.