It’s not to get mailing addresses that Hong Kong police are grilling the family members of eight prominent Hong Kong dissidents with bounties on their heads who are now living overseas.
Samuel Bickett, an activist once jailed in Hong Kong who is today a fellow at the Georgetown Center for Asian Law, explained what’s going on to The Guardian (August 17, 2023):
“It’s essentially hostage-taking,” Bickett says, “sending a message to activists and potential activists abroad that if you stand up to the Hong Kong government they’ll go after your family….
“Whatever [the authorities] do to couch this in terms of the law—saying they’re interviewing witnesses and things like that—that’s not what this is. They know exactly where these [activists] are and what they’re doing. There is absolutely no reason to question the families.”
The Guardian reports that Hong Kong police have interrogated the families of Nathan Law, Dennis Kwok, Christopher Mung Siu-tat, now in the United Kingdom; and Anna Kwok, now in the United States.
On 8 August police questioned the parents of Anna Kwok. Kwok, executive director of the Washington-based Hong Kong Democracy Council, fled Hong Kong in 2020 to seek political asylum in the US.
“Although I feel guilty, I have to say that it is the price,” she said on Facebook, apologising to her family. “While I’ve never done anything wrong, I am beyond sorry.”
The interrogation of family members has not prompted any of the exiles to return home. Anna Kwok, who lobbied the US government to bar [Hong Kong chief executive John Lee] from an Apec summit, urged the Hong Kong diaspora to reject the “incitement of fear” and continue “insisting on freedom”.
Although some expatriate Hong Kong activists are undaunted, the gangster tactics have the desired effect on others, who may stop speaking out or joining protests in hopes of protecting their families.
Not all of the family members are innocent victims. Eunice Yung, daughter-in-law of one of the eight with bounties on their heads, is a legislator in Hong Kong who has publicly criticized her father-in-law, Elmer Yuen, now in London, for supporting democracy. After the Hong Kong police questioned her, she told the press that she supported what the police were doing and that if she had known Yuen’s exact location, she would have definitely disclosed it.
