Hong Kong cancels passports, bans financial support for wanted activists

In their most recent crackdown on activities that they fear threaten national security, Hong Kong authorities have ordered the cancellation of 12 international activists’ passports.

Following a local court’s arrest warrants last month for the 12 activists and seven other pro-democracy campaigners over their alleged roles in the establishment of an unofficial parliament abroad, Hong Kong’s Security Bureau announced the measures on Monday.

Additionally, the bureau said it outlawed entering joint ventures or partnerships with 16 of the “absconders” and prohibited individuals from lending money or leasing property to them.

Chongyi Feng, an Australian national and University of Technology Sydney professor, and Sasha Gong, a journalist and citizen of the United States, are the wanted activists.

According to Hong Kong authorities, the 19 activists’ participation in the “Hong Kong Parliament” advocacy group is considered subversion under the city’s strict national security law.

The activists were still hiding in countries like the United States, the UK, Canada, and Australia, according to a spokesperson for the Hong Kong government.

The Hong Kong parliament criticized the campaigners’ announcement of arrest warrants and bonuses as a “blatant abuse of legal tools to pursue political persecution” last month.

The group claimed that “These actions are a clear escalation of Beijing’s transnational repression that extends beyond China’s borders and violates the sovereignty of democratic countries, including the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, and members of the European Union.”

Since the passage of a comprehensive Beijing-decreed national security law in 2020 in response to violent anti-government protests, Hong Kong has radically reduced the space for dissent.

Opposition parties have been essentially outlawed from the city’s legislature, and public events like the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre have been effectively prohibited.

Since 2020, 332 people have been detained for national offenses, according to Hong Kong’s CEO, John Lee, last month.