1 Jan 1997 | Magazine, Magazine Editions, Volume 26.01 January 1997
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6 Jul 2023 | China, Hong Kong, News and features, United Kingdom
Pro-democracy activists exiled from Hong Kong will never be silenced despite attempts by the Chinese Communist Party to use transnational repression against them, an urgent press briefing held at the UK House of Commons on Wednesday heard.
This is despite what some are calling a “Chinese fatwa” which has seen the Hong Kong Police Force issue arrest warrants againt eight activists, including Christopher Mung, Finn Lau and Nathaw Law in the UK, and others in the US, Canada and Australia. The authorities have also offered rewards of up to one million Hong Kong dollars for information leading to their capture.
Mung and Lau both spoke at the briefing, which was chaired by Bob Seely MP.
Mung stressed the repercussions of the long reach from the authorities, but vowed he will never be silenced.
He said: “The Chinese and Hong Kong governments are extending their hands abroad, suppressing freedom of speech and silencing activists with a chilling effect.
“But they will never eliminate my voice, or the voice of Hongkongers. For the rest of my life, us Hongkongers will fight together.”
Lau said it wasn’t the first time the CCP had tried to exert transnational repression of speech in the UK, citing the harassment of protestors outside the Chinese consulate in Manchester by staff in 2022.
He also issued a set of demands to the British government in response to the warrants. These included an urgent meeting with both the British foreign and home secretaries, as well as calling for legal action against anybody in the UK who passes on information about the activists for reward.
“We simply need concrete action and measures to tackle this,” he said.
Mark Clifford, president of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation, went as far to call the warrants and bounties a Chinese “fatwa”.
He said: “The CCP and their enablers in Hong Kong have crossed a red line here. What they’re saying is democracy is illegal around the world under their National Security Law.
“We need actions because China will keep pushing, and pushing, and pushing.”
When asked why the warrants and bounties were issued now, Lau said that any guess is just speculation.
He continued: “Personally, I think it’s just simply a way of discouraging Hongkongers from fighting for their democracy and speech in the future.”
Benedict Rogers, chief executive of Hong Kong Watch, which monitors freedoms and human rights in Hong Kong, recounted attempts by the CCP to repress his own freedom of speech, while acknowledging these have been less severe than those now faced by the eight activists.
“About a year ago I received a letter from the Hong Kong police informing me that what I do with Hong Kong Watch in the UK violates the National Security Law in Hong Kong, and I could face a prison sentence there,” he said.
“I’ve also received anonymous threatening letters from Hong Kong, some even posted to my mother.”
Finishing off the session, Mark Clifford said that the battle with the CCP’s repression will be a long-term struggle, and to ensure talk of damaging trade relations doesn’t affect it.
“It’s an evil, evil country; and we must remember our values are just more important than economic commerce.”
Read our statement on the arrest warrants and rewards.
2 Jun 2009 | Comment, News and features
Poet Liu Hongbin fled China after taking part in the Tiananmen Square protests. Here, he describes his experience of returning to China as a persona non grata in 1997
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15 Dec 2025 | Hong Kong, News and features, Statements
We at Index on Censorship condemn today’s guilty verdict coming out of Hong Kong in the “trial” of democracy activist and media mogul Jimmy Lai. Nothing about this trial has been free or fair. Indeed the National Security Law itself, which Lai has been charged under, is an affront to free speech, masquerading as justice when instead its sole purpose is to criminalise and crush opposition voices.
Lai has been imprisoned in Hong Kong since 2020. He has already been sentenced for separate charges of unauthorised assembly and fraud, but the National Security Law charge he has now been convicted of was the most serious accusation. As a result of today’s verdict Lai, who is 78 years old and a British citizen, could face life in prison.
Lai has a long history of being an advocate for free speech and democracy. He describes himself as having a “rebellious nature”, which he has demonstrated throughout his life. Born in mainland China in 1947 during the Chinese Civil War, when he was just 12 years old Lai smuggled himself into Hong Kong as a stowaway on a fishing boat. He launched a very successful career in the city through his role at a garment factory, and later his clothing line, before being inspired to go into the media business in the 1990s by his outrage at the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.
Lai founded the media company that went on to become Next Digital in 1990. It grew to include Apple Daily, a popular opposition newspaper dedicated to free speech, in 1995. After the Hong Kong handover in 1997, Apple Daily became known for challenging Beijing’s party line, as did Lai, who emerged as a key figure in Hong Kong’s pro-democracy camp, which emerged in response to the increasing attacks on freedoms in the region.
Since the ascension of Xi Jinping to power from 2012, the CCP ‘s crackdown on freedoms in Hong Kong only intensified. Then on 30 June 2020, the National Security Law was passed. Speaking before its passage, Lai called the law “a death knell for Hong Kong”. Lai was arrested on 10 August of that year, as were others from Next Digital.
Following his arrest, Apple Daily was also targeted. The newspaper was forced to shut down a year later when its assets were frozen.
Index has campaigned on behalf of Lai since his arrest. We have covered updates on his situation, published letters of Lai’s written from prison and launched A Postcard for Jimmy, a campaign encouraging people to write a brief message of support to Lai in order to boost his morale and let him know he has not been forgotten.
Throughout his ordeal, Jimmy Lai – whose health has visibly deteriorated – has never backed down from his pro-democracy position. Preferring to be a martyr for the cause rather than sacrifice his principles, Lai is being punished for exercising his right to free speech. It is vital that his case does not go unnoticed. The guilty verdict returned in relation to these charges is an appalling breach of Lai’s personal rights and freedoms, and we will continue to condemn the decision while Lai continues to be incarcerated. Advocating for human rights is not a crime. Keeping Jimmy Lai locked up is.
