When in 2005, at the age of 18, Anna Kwok renewed her identity card in Hong Kong, she was far from imagining that the photo she provided would appear eight years later on a wanted poster broadcast on television. and plastered in the police stations of her hometown… Like that of this young woman, who now lives in Washington, the heads of seven other pro-democracy activists who fled Hong Kong in 2020 to take refuge in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia are now at a premium. With, under their portrait, the promise of a reward of 1 million Hong Kong dollars (121,000 euros) for any information leading to their capture. Never before seen in the history of the former British colony! Determined to hunt down “by all means” those he described as “rats”, the head of the Hong Kong executive, John Lee, left them only one alternative, at the beginning of July: surrender or “live in fear” for the rest of their lives.
Attempts at intimidation reached a new level during the summer. Faced with the refusal of host countries to extradite these exiles, the Hong Kong authorities are now attacking their weak point: since July 1, three years after the promulgation of the national security law imposed by Beijing after the demonstrations pro-democracy of 2019, the police increase the pressure on the relatives of the opponents. The parents and brother of Nathan Law, 30 years old and exiled in London, were among the first to be taken in the early morning for an interrogation lasting several hours – his sister-in-law then suffered the same fate.
“As they cannot stop us, they are trying to silence us by harassing our families. This proves how much they fear that our speech will affect public opinion,” summarizes the former student leader, who was in 2017, by telephone. the youngest Hong Kong MP ever elected. In August, the ex-wife and children of entrepreneur and activist Elmer Yuen, as well as the two brothers and the parents of Anna Kwok, were in turn involved with the police. Then, last month, it was the in-laws of ex-elect Ted Hui, based in Australia.
Scare all those who support the opponents
Officially, the police are investigating possible contacts and monetary transactions between the exiles and their relatives. But, in reality, “the objective is to isolate these human rights defenders, signaling to all those who support them to stay away, explains Michael Davis, former professor at the University of Hong Kong, currently a researcher at the Wilson Center, whether these sympathizers are in Hong Kong, where they risk being arrested, or abroad, where they too could be the subject of an arrest warrant.
While the financial megalopolis had long enjoyed non-existent freedoms on the continent, “the Hong Kong government began to adopt the tactics of the Chinese Communist Party to muzzle critical speech abroad”, adds Sam Goodman, of the NGO Hong Kong Watch, London. A method used for years by Beijing to dissuade Uighurs who have left China from speaking about the terrible repression to which they are victims in Xinjiang.
Nathan Law, who claims to have cut all ties with his family for years “to protect them”, does not hide the difficulty of the situation. “It’s very painful, because even if you think what you are doing is right, you are making your family suffer the consequences, which was the last thing you wanted,” confides the one who does not give up on his fight for democracy. “Stopping would mean that the government has achieved its objective,” he said. “I will continue to speak out, to defend Hong Kongers.”
Because in the financial megalopolis, almost no voice is raised against the local authorities – who, without fear of contradiction, have launched a communication campaign to improve the image of the financial center and attract foreign investors. “Much of the traditional opposition in Hong Kong is under arrest or has fled abroad,” insists Michael Davis. “All others, faced with such risks, have been largely silenced.” One of the most famous defenders of democracy, Joshua Wong, former companion of Nathan Law, is one of the hundreds of opponents sleeping behind bars. “It is also for him, and the other political prisoners, that I am not giving up,” says his friend.