China news: The $200k bounty on ordinary Australians critical of China

Yam and Hui are both pro-democracy activists and former residents of Hong Kong, who, according to the Chinese Communist regime, are also enemies of the state.

Despite living in Australia for years, Chinese authorities are still tracking them, offering a $200,000 bounty for their capture.

In an exclusive interview with 60 Minutes, Regina Ip, a pro-Beijing lawmaker and Convenor of Hong Kong's Executive Council, said the political dissidents need to be dealt with under China's security law.

"We don't seek to exterminate them," Ip told Sarah Abo.

"In fact, if they go through our correctional services system, we will try to rehabilitate them."

China has been targeting proponents of democracy since the British handover of Hong Kong in 1997, which transferred the special administrative region into Chinese control but pledged to retain its political, economic and social freedoms.

The autonomy was meant to last for 50 years, but China has slowly made a move to constrain Hong Kong's political liberties.

Several pro-democracy protests attempting to shut down a Beijing takeover saw activists arrested, detained or suddenly disappear.

But in early 2020, the draconian National Security Law was introduced.

Since then, the Communist regime has been more overt with its arrests. And now, political dissidents outside China are on the hit list.

Yam grew up in Australia but lived in Hong Kong for 17 years and worked as a financial services lawyer for state-owned enterprises.

He returned to Australia last year and had been living an ordinary life in Melbourne when he was alerted on Twitter to "an arrest warrant for collusion of foreign forces".

"It felt weird," Yam said.

"It almost feels like we are no longer just escaping persecution."

While he hasn't confirmed why he is on China's hit list, Yam was involved in anti-government activities while living in Hong Kong.

He also appeared before the US Congress earlier this year to talk about what's happening to Hong Kong's rule of law.

Hui is in the same situation.

As a pro-democracy politician he fought for Hong Kong's freedoms.

His advocacy has come at great personal cost having been arrested several times. Now living in exile in Adelaide, he remains a person-of-interest to Chinese authorities.

"It's not very likely, but it's possible for criminals hired by the regime to do terrible things," Hui said.

As a father of two young kids, it's the safety of his family that worries Hui the most.

"They can kidnap children. It happened to many dissidents overseas, so it can happen to me," he said.

Earlier this month, the Hong Kong government said in a statement that "national security laws have extraterritorial effects," claiming the criticism over slapping bounties on people's heads is simply hypocritical.

This claim has only allowed authorities to be more shameless about their targets. Yam and Hui are just two of eight activists living overseas — in the United Kingdom, United States, Canada and Australia — being pursued for alleged "serious" breaches in China's National Security Law.

Yam said what people like him and Hui are being accused of are "speech crimes", actions that in democratic countries would be considered integral to political discourse.

"In Hong Kong, they would say you are colluding with foreign forces and therefore you should go to jail," Yam said.

Despite the life-threatening implications, both Australian-based dissidents continue their fight against Beijing's interference in Hong Kong democracy.

They are adamant their rights and liberties should be recognised and upheld because they are outside Chinese jurisdiction.

"I need them to know that Hong Kongers are still here. We're still speaking up for freedom of democracy even while we are away in exile," Hui said.

Watch the full episode of 60 Minutes on 9Now.

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