Hong Kong authorities have stripped 12 overseas-based pro-democracy activists of their passports, ramping up a crackdown that critics say is targeting dissent far beyond city borders.
The move comes after a local court issued arrest warrants last month for the group — part of a broader list of 19 campaigners wanted for allegedly helping set up an unofficial “Hong Kong Parliament” abroad. Officials claim the group poses a threat to national security.
The Security Bureau on Monday announced the cancellations and added further restrictions: it’s now illegal to offer the wanted activists financial support, rent them property, or enter into partnerships with them.
The list includes high-profile figures like Chongyi Feng, an Australian academic at the University of Technology Sydney, and Sasha Gong, a US journalist and former Voice of America staffer. Both have denied wrongdoing.
Authorities say these activists, now based in places like the US, UK, Canada, and Australia, are “blatantly endangering national security” through their involvement with the symbolic “parliament” project.
The group hit back hard. In a statement, the Hong Kong Parliament slammed the arrest warrants and passport cancellations as “blatant abuse of legal instruments to pursue political persecution,” calling it part of Beijing’s wider campaign of transnational repression.
“This is a clear escalation,” the group said, accusing China of expanding its coercive reach into democratic countries — including the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and EU member states.
Since the introduction of Beijing’s sweeping national security law in 2020, Hong Kong’s political landscape has been gutted. Opposition parties have been wiped out from the legislature, Tiananmen Square vigils have been banned, and hundreds have been arrested.
Chief Executive John Lee said last month that over 330 people have been arrested under the law since its launch.
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