Hong Kong’s bounty hunters target Australians Kevin Yam and Ted Hui as China cracks down on dissidents

The Hong Kong government’s decision to put a price on the heads of two Australian residents has strained efforts to mend ties between Canberra and Beijing.

Kevin Yam first heard the Hong Kong government had put a bounty on his head from a Twitter notification.

It was late Monday afternoon and the Melbourne-based lawyer was at home watching Australian cricket captain Pat Cummins’ post-victory press conference online. He was interrupted halfway through when he was tagged in a Twitter notification bearing ominous news.

“A journalist tagged me saying I had been accused of collusion at a press conference in Hong Kong. I had Pat Cummins for company as I found out I had a bounty on my head,” Yam told AFR Weekend.

Lawyer Kevin Yam who had a bounty and arrest warrant issued for him by the Hong Kong government this week, pictured in Sydney. Oscar Colman

After working as a barrister in Hong Kong for two decades, where he was an outspoken critic of the city’s changing legal system under Chinese rule, Yam knew he was not in Beijing’s good books. However, he never expected to be put in the same category as the seven other exiled high-profile activists and former politicians who had a price put on their head this week.

“It is a bit like the AFL ladder. I knew I was playing in the AFL, but I didn’t know I was a contender for the top eight,” Lam says.

“I knew if I was going to speak out I was never going to go back to Hong Kong. But out of the Joshua Wongs and Nathan Laws of the world, I’m not even a blip on that radar.”

Yam, who was born in Hong Kong but moved to Australia when he was 10, is referring to Hong Kong’s former student leaders, who became the first high-profile targets of national security laws introduced to the city in mid-2020. Wong, 26, has been in prison in Hong Kong for almost three years, while Law lives in exile in the United Kingdom.

This week, authorities in Hong Kong – which answer directly to Beijing – dramatically widened the scope of their clampdown on dissent beyond the city’s borders to the rest of the world.

Yam and former Hong Kong politician Ted Hui, who fled to Australia in 2021 and now lives in Adelaide, were among eight named at the Monday afternoon press conference by Senior Superintendent Steve Li, who works for the city’s national security department.

As well as issuing warrants for their arrest, Hong Kong authorities took the unusual step of issuing a $HK1 million ($192,000) reward for information leading to their return. The collusion offence carries a sentence of up to life in prison.

Hong Kong’s leader John Lee later elaborated, saying the activists would be “pursued for life” and called on exiled activists’ friends and relatives to provide information on their whereabouts.

His rhetoric was a reminder of China’s Cultural Revolution, when relatives and neighbours were encouraged to spy on each other, and unsettled many in a city seeking to restore its image as a regional financial hub.

“I can’t get my head around why they keep doing these things that play so badly in the international arena,” one senior Australian executive living in Hong Kong says. “For all the ‘Hello! Hong Kong’ videos and things they are trying to do in the international market, it plays badly. It’s just dumb.”

The move has also further complicated a thawing of diplomatic relations between Canberra and Beijing. Foreign Minister Penny Wong immediately condemned the arrest warrants as “deeply disappointing” and Anthony Albanese later called the situation “unacceptable”. China’s Foreign Ministry accused Australia and other countries of harbouring “fugitives”.

The exchange does not bode well for Albanese’s expected trip to Beijing later this year, as the federal government negotiates an end to China’s trade sanctions. Lobbying for the release of detained Australian journalist Cheng Lei is also high on the agenda.

DFAT would not say whether it has been approached directly by the Hong Kong authorities about the two men. It reviewed its travel advice for Hong Kong last month, warning travellers the city’s national security laws could apply to activities outside the territory.

Ted Hui, a former Hong Kong pro- democracy legislator, is now in exile in Australia. Eamon Gallagher

Yam, who is an Australian citizen, and Hui have labelled the bounties as laughable and say they do not fear for their safety. “The bounty does not change my situation or affect my personal safety at all,” says Hui, who was already the subject of various national security charges before arriving in Australia.

Australia announced it would suspend its extradition treaty with Hong Kong days after the national security laws were implemented in mid-2020.

It also said it would extend visas for some Hong Kong citizens already in Australia. Australia’s foreign interference laws introduced by the former Turnbull government also add another layer of protection.

Still, other dissidents who have long been targeted by China warn the two men will have to be careful about travelling to countries that have a history of exchanging information or even handing over “fugitives” to China.

“Because of the new [foreign interference] legislation, the capacity of the Chinese security apparatus to operate in Australia has been greatly reduced if not eliminated,” Feng Chongyi, a University of Technology Sydney academic who was detained in China in 2017, says.

“If they came here without the collaboration of the Australian police I don’t think they would be able to kidnap someone like Ted Hui. But I wouldn’t go to places like Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Burma or Singapore. The Chinese security personnel have been able to kidnap people [from those countries].”

Australia is not the only country caught up in the crackdown. The United States and the United Kingdom, where the other six individuals live, also condemned the bounties. The others named by Hong Kong are Dennis Kwok, Nathan Law, Anna Kwok, Elmer Yuen, Mung Siu-tat and Finn Lau.

“I am never going to stop and I am never going to back down, even though there is a bounty on my head,” Anna Kwok, who is based in Washington DC, says.

Yam agrees, saying if anything the warrant and bounty are motivators and proof he is doing something right. An outspoken critic of the erosion of Hong Kong’s independent judiciary, he testified before US Congress earlier this year.

“John Lee can go and f--- himself,” says Yam, who jokes he was so moderate compared to other activists in Hong Kong during his two decades working there that at one stage the pro-Beijing camp tried to recruit him. Yam is still a member of the Hong Kong Law Society, but is now likely to be disbarred by an organisation he says no longer has any credibility.

“Since this happened, some people have said it is a badge of honour. It is not a reflection of them thinking how brave I am, but of people thinking how bad the Hong Kong government is. With some of these big show trials in Hong Kong finishing, the national security division – which gets billions of dollars in funding – needs to look for some new villains to be poster boys.”

Beijing introduced the national security laws in Hong Kong in mid-2020 to ensure there was not a repeat of the mass anti-government protests that erupted throughout the city for six months in 2019. Police say 260 people have been arrested under those laws, but it is believed there are more than 1400 political prisoners in Hong Kong.

Lee, who replaced Carrie Lam a year ago, is now engaged in a schizophrenic struggle for the city’s identity. On one hand, his government is pouring money into publicity blitzes, including the Hello! Hong Kong tourism campaign to portray itself as a vibrant international commercial and tourist hub.

Police in riot gear move to prevent a protester escaping a siege on the Polytechnic University campus in 2019. AP

At the same time, he is bound by the Chinese Communist Party’s prioritisation of national security above all else, which means anyone in the city, regardless of their nationality, could potentially be jailed for criticising the government or burning a flag.

The bounties have also put the spotlight back on the role of foreign judges who sit on Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal, which critics say adds legitimacy to China’s claim the city has an independent judicial system.

Former Australian High Court chief justices Murray Gleeson and Robert French and former High Court judge William Gummow sit on the bench, while former Australian High Court judge Patrick Keane was appointed in January.

The crackdown in Hong Kong, where an entire generation grew up with free speech, is more visible than in mainland China, where dissent is usually stamped out before it becomes public. Hong Kong was under British rule until 1997 and was supposed to have 50 years of autonomy under a handover agreement with Beijing.

That was until the protests, initially over an extradition law, alarmed Beijing. Xi Jinping has also been broadening his focus on national security in both Hong Kong and mainland China, where new anti-espionage laws came into force on July 1 this year.

The announcement of the arrest warrants and bounties this week is another sign that Beijing does not see foreign jurisdictions as a limit when tracking down enemies of the state. In April, the FBI arrested two men charged with operating an illegal secret Chinese police station in Manhattan. It was one of dozens reportedly set up around the world by China to monitor people it considers enemies of the state.

“There are no boundaries any more,” says UTS’ Feng. “It is not only the grassroots dissidents, but it also includes politicians. It seems Xi Jinping’s followers are prepared to do anything and go after anyone.”

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