HONG KONG: The Hong Kong government cancelled the passports of seven overseas-based activists under the new national security law and banned the handling of funds related to these individuals.
The seven were listed in a government notice on Tuesday (Dec 24) as absconders for offences endangering national security. They include former lawmakers Ted Hui and Dennis Kwok, as well as activists Kevin Yam, Kwok Fung-yee, Elmer Yuan, Hui Wing-ting and Joey Siu.
The latest measures are part of an ongoing crackdown on dissent, and carried out under the new powers granted by Hong Kong’s homegrown national security law enacted earlier this year. Known as Article 23, the law gives authorities the right to cancel the passports of wanted individuals living overseas.
Authorities also used the new legislation to ban anyone from funding, renting, buying or selling property to, or having joint ventures with the seven people. So far, no one has been arrested for funding the individuals.
"If offenders voluntarily cease their criminal activities and provide information that leads to the arrest of others, their own offences may be dealt with more leniently,” Kan Kai-yan, deputy commissioner of police (national security), said at a briefing.
The government suspended the law practice qualifications of Kwok and Yam, according to the notice. Kwok is a partner at the New York-based law firm Elliott Kwok Levine Jaroslaw Neils LLP, while Yam is a PhD student at the Melbourne Law School after returning to Australia in 2022.
Businessman Elmer Yuan has been ordered to be temporarily removed as director of seven companies. He is the father-in-law of pro-Beijing politician Eunice Yung. Two years ago, Yung took out a newspaper ad to announce that she was severing ties with Yuan after he was accused of subversion.
On Tuesday, the government added six more individuals to the wanted list, offering a HK$1 million (US$128,725) bounty for each, and accusing them of harming the interests of the people of Hong Kong.
The people include scholar and public opinion pollster Chung Kim-wah, and former singer and actor Joseph Tay, who runs a radio station in Canada and intends to stand in an upcoming local election. - Bloomberg
