Finn Lau, one of the eight prominent expatriate Hong Kong activists on whose heads the Hong Kong government placed a bounty, has asked the British government for help in avoiding assault and capture. But he says that it is not responsive.
Hong Kong authorities arrested Lau in early 2020 but let him go, not realizing at the time that he was a leader of the 2019 mass protests against China’s crackdown on Hong Kongers’ democracy and freedoms.
The Hong Kong government—in effect, the mainland China government, now that the crucial political differences between the mainland and Hong Kong have been wiped out under the 2020 National Security Law—recently announced a $128,000 USD reward for information enabling Hong Kong authorities to detain several Hong Kong activists currently living in the west.
Lau spoke to Voice of America in July 2023.
“I got some screenshots coming from some Telegram groups, saying that ‘perhaps we should lure them with some kind of tactics, such that we could catch them or kill them,’ ” he said….
“To be honest I feel less safe in the U.K. After all I faced different kinds of harassment, no matter whether it is virtual online harassment or physical harassment, for the last few years. I was attacked near my home in 2020.” . . .
“I request for assurance from the U.K. government that if there is anyone attempting to kidnap or to detain me under the so-called Hong Kong National Security Law, then they should be tried and charged under U.K. law for kidnapping.”
“I have tried to contact the [British] Home Office as well as the police, several times. But there is no response at all,” he told VOA.
Lau says that despite the threats, he will continue to speak out against what has been happening to Hong Kong. “I’ve got friends sitting in the prison of Hong Kong. So that’s why I must continue to fight.”
