The Chinese Community Party (CCP) are using a menacing array of methods to crush dissent by intimidating and silencing activists living abroad.
Beijing have targeted campaigners living in the UK, Canada and Australia through physical threats, pressuring family members back home and even placing bounties on them worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.
It is believed to be part of a global effort from authorities to ensure that any repression in China, Hong Kong or Taiwan is kept out of sight.
President Xi Jinping has been accused of limiting freedom of speech and assembly within Chinese territories, and cracking down on Uyghur Muslims and Tibetans.
Activists living abroad have consistently raised such issues with Western politicians and media, piling pressure on Western governments to take a stronger line when dealing with Beijing.
But Chinese authorities have sought to clamp down on foreign dissent by placing bounties of one million HK dollars – worth over £100,000 – on opposition figures on charges of contravening the Beijing-imposed national security law.
Of the 19 victims, 10 are fugitives to the UK, four to the US, three to Canada and the remaining two live in Australia.
China’s tactics against these individuals go much further than offering payment for their detainment, according to the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation (CFHK).
They said officials regularly employ people to engage in digital harassment, physical threats and following their targets.
Hong Kong authorities have placed bounties of one million HK dollars on 19 overseas activists for allegedly contravening the Beijing-imposed national security law
President Xi Jinping has been accused of limiting freedom of speech and assembly – especially in the special administrative region of Hong Kong – and cracking down on Uyghur Muslims and Tibetans
Chloe Cheung, who works for the CFHK, was a direct target of such practices.
Giving evidence to MPs last month, she said being placed on a bounty list has been a ‘nightmare’ affecting her ‘mentally, emotionally, and physically in profound ways that I never expected.’
Since being listed, she said she received a ‘barrage of sexual harassment messages and threatening comments on social media’ as well as being followed home by ‘two suspicious men of Chinese ethnicity’.
Cheung added: ‘I was now genuinely concerned that these individuals had either been sent to monitor me or, in the worst-case scenario, potentially attempt to kidnap me.’
She told MailOnline: ‘The long arm of the Chinese Communist Party has reached into my life here in the UK, a place where I was supposed to feel safe. Instead, I’m constantly looking over my shoulder, wondering if I’m being watched or followed.
‘The threats, the isolation, and the sense of always being hunted are exhausting. No one should have to live like this just for speaking out.’
Meanwhile, federal prosecutors in the US accused Litang Liang, of Massachusetts, of acting as an agent of Beijing by collecting information about Boston-area residents, organisations and dissidents and sharing the details with Chinese authorities.
He was cleared in February following a six-day trial, however.
Chloe Cheung was accused of ‘incitement to secession’ and ‘collusion with a foreign country’
She recently took part in a protest marking the first anniversary of the implementation of the Hong Kong National Security Ordinance Article 23
Cheung told MailOnline: ‘The long arm of the Chinese Communist Party has reached into my life here in the UK, a place where I was supposed to feel safe’
Amnesty International say Hong Kong disapora groups face harassment at community events, online trolling and intimidation on university campuses.
In a landmark report released last year, human rights group said it was ‘not uncommon for participants who have either organised or participated in Hong Kong-related protests to be photographed without consent by hostile individuals.’
They also warned that the CCP might work to manipulate anti-immigration sentiment in the UK to prevent people from attending such gatherings in the first place.
Friends and family of UK-based demonstrators are also subject to pressure from the Hong Kong or Chinese authorities to either encourage them to stop their activism – or to cut contact entirely.
Kerry Moscogiuri, Amnesty International UK’s Director of Campaigns, said: ‘The Chinese and Hong Kong authorities have honed a deeply concerning pattern of repression against Chinese and Hong Kong activists, wherever they are in the world.
‘With the long arm of Chinese and Hong Kong authorities using various tactics of harassment, intimidation and surveillance on pro-democratic activists and their overseas students to silence, control or deter dissent – this includes threats against their family members in China and Hong Kong, coercion by police or officials abroad to make individuals return to China; and the abuse of Interpol Red Notice and extradition requests.’
Targeting family members still living under Chinese rule can also further increase pressure on campaigners to curb their activities.
On Thursday it emerged that Hong Kong’s national security police questioned the parents of Frances Hui, the first high-profile Hong Kong activist to be granted political asylum in the US.
In February, two family members of Carmen Lau Ka-man, a former district councillor in Hong Kong, were taken away by police for questioning.
She said: ‘This is nothing more than an attempt to intimidate Hong Kongers, both in Hong Kong and overseas.’
A month earlier, the wife and son of another fugitive were summoned by Hong Kong’s national security police.
It is believed they were investigating whether they were providing assistance to Chung Kim Wah, who fled to the UK in 2022.
Hong Kong authorities have cracked down on protests in the territory
Campaigners have continued to raise the Hong Kong cause while living overseas to put pressure on Western governments to take a tougher line on China
In response, Beijing have targeted campaigners living in the UK, Canada and Australia through physical threats, pressuring family members back home and even placing bounties on them worth hundreds of thousands of pounds
Authorities have also made it more difficult for their targets to ever return to living a normal life in China or Hong Kong – if they are able to return at all.
Ted Hui, a former pro-democracy legislator who is now based in Australia, had his assets frozen in 2020.
Earlier this year a Hong Kong court allowed the government to confiscate HK$800,000 – around £81,000 – as they accused him of obtaining the money ‘from committing offences endangering national security’.
Hui was one of seven overseas campaigners to have their passports cancelled late last year.
Secretary for Security Chris Tang said his government were taking action against those who ignored the ‘ample time’ given to them to return to Hong Kong and surrender.
Ted Hui, a former pro-democracy legislator who is now based in Australia, had his assets frozen in 2020
He was one of seven overseas campaigners to have their passports cancelled late last year
Earlier this year the Daily Mail revealed that bounty letters were being delivered to the neighbours of anti-China campaigners living in Britain.
Lau accused the CCP of increasing its intimidation tactics after neighbours were told to deliver her to the Chinese embassy for money.
She told the Mail: ‘The authorities are intentionally trying to target young activists to stop our work – but we will continue to advocate for democracy.
‘Many of us fled Hong Kong for freedom but even on British soil we can not exercise our freedoms.’
Her ordeal came weeks after exiled pro-independence campaigner Tony Chung was made aware of crudely printed notes offering a reward for ‘any information on this wanted person’ or to anyone who can ‘take him to the Chinese embassy’.
In December Mr Chung, who fled the Chinese territory in 2023 to seek asylum in Britain, was listed publicly along with five other overseas pro-democracy activists by Hong Kong authorities.
Exiled pro-independence campaigner Tony Chung was made aware of crudely printed notes offering a reward for ‘any information on this wanted person’ or to anyone who can ‘take him to the Chinese embassy
Mr Chung, who fled the Chinese territory in 2023 to seek asylum in Britain, was listed publicly along with five other overseas pro-democracy activists by Hong Kong authorities in December
Benedict Rogers, CEO of the Hong Kong Watch charity, suffered similar intimidation tactics from 2018 to 2020.
He said: ‘From early 2018, I received between 20 and 30 anonymous threatening letters, stamped and postmarked from Hong Kong.
‘The first was one with a picture of me from the internet with the caption ‘watch him’, which was sent to all my neighbours in London. They told them that I was a dangerous individual and to keep an eye on me.
‘They were designed to intimidate and scare me – when they realised it wasn’t having any effect, they moved on to others.
‘It’s an extremely concerning development and the Government and security agencies must take this seriously.’
This method has also been tried in Australia. Hui raised the alarm after fake pamphlets accusing him of being a pro-Israel lawyer were allegedly mailed to mosques in Adelaide.
Separately, letters offering a bounty for information about Kevin Yam, an Australian citizen wanted for alleged national security crimes in Hong Kong, were sent to homed in Melbourne.
And earlier this month a Canadian MP, Paul Chiang, was forced to quit as a Liberal Party candidate over comments he made suggesting a political rival should be turned over to the Chinese consulate in return for a bounty.
His opponent, Hong-Kong born Joe Tay, founded the Canada-based nonprofit group HongKonger Station, which promotes democracy and free speech.
Letters offering a bounty for information about Kevin Yam, an Australian citizen wanted for alleged national security crimes in Hong Kong, were sent to homed in Melbourne
The letters offered a reward of one million HK dollars for delivering him to the police
Some activists are subject to vicious smear campaigns in a bid to ruin their reputations.
Luke de Pulford, the Executive Director of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), was named as an alleged co-conspirator when Hong Kong authorities charged media tycoon and pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai in 2024.
Lai rejected accusations of conspiracy to commit foreign collusion and conspiring to publish seditious material – and de Pulford said the inclusion of foreign nationals was a worrying development in the tactics employed by authorities.
At the time, he was told by the Foreign Office that he would be travelling at his own risk if he went to one of the more than 50 countries that had extradition treaties with China.
The British citizen also claimed that a pro-Beijing impersonator managed to resign his Conservative party membership as part of a long-running attempt to discredit him.
He told MailOnline: ‘Dissidents have it much worse, but the fact that Beijing thinks it can bully foreign activists and politicians like this shows the true face of Xi’s regime.
‘They will stop at nothing to silence criticism and control the narrative. What’s worse is that the UK government seems desperate to find an excuse to do nothing about it.
‘In my own case, despite being the only UK-born citizen named as a conspirator in the trial of Jimmy Lai, the Foreign Office tried to deny that it had even happened. After they were proven wrong, they still didn’t say anything.’
Hong Kong pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai (C) is led into a police van as he heads to court to be charged under the territory’s controversial new national security law in 2020
Luke de Pulford, the Executive Director of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) was named as an alleged co-conspirator when Hong Kong authorities charged media tycoon and pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai
British MPs have now warned that the Labour government must stop buckling to the Chinese regime amid a growing sense of belligerence and hostile behaviour.
Phil Brickell, a Labour MP who is a member of IPAC, told MailOnline: ‘The UK must publicly challenge the regime in Beijing on its systematic targeting of dissident political voices around the world.
‘We’ve got to make it clear to Xi Jinping that the UK won’t be pushed around, and that the sinister harassment of UK citizens and residents will not be tolerated.
‘Having spoken to members of the Hong Kong community in my Bolton West constituency, it’s clear there is a pervasive fear of reprisals for speaking out against China’s communist regime.
‘Human rights abusers should be sanctioned, regardless of how big or powerful they are. The government has the requisite tools at its disposal. It should use them.’
Labour MP Sarah Champion, who chairs the APPG on Taiwan as well as the International Development Select Committee, told MailOnline: ‘Having met some of the people targeted by these insidious tactics, I know just how chilling they are.
‘Just as in China where neighbours are encouraged to rat on each other, UK neighbours are being contacted by CCP asking them to betray their ex Hong Kong friends.
‘What is happening in our country that this is going unchallenged. When reported to the police, they don’t seem to think it’s their remit to get involved – so who is in charge of stopping this cross border intimidation?’
Calum Miller, the Liberal Democrat Foreign Affairs spokesman, said the Labour government must stop ‘cosying up’ to Beijing.
He added: ‘China’s global campaign to target pro-democracy Hong Kong activists is insidious. They are relentless in their transnational efforts to suppress criticism of their regime.
‘Beijing has gone as far as to place bounties on the heads of activists living in the UK. We must take a stand against both the threats against these activists’ lives and China’s blatant disregard for UK sovereignty.
‘Labour needs to make clear – in no uncertain terms – that China has crossed a red line through its tactics of intimidation. This needs to be made explicit in the Government’s UK-China audit — which Liberal Democrats have urged is published without delay.’
Experts said that China’s multifaceted use of oppressive tactics was ‘hardly surprising’.
Professor Steve Tsang, Director of the SOAS China Institute, told MailOnline: ‘The methods listed come out of the classic bullying tactics used by authoritarian states.
‘The systematic use of such tactics in the UK reflects how much or, in reality, little respect the Chinese state has for British law, despite its protestation of friendliness to the UK.
‘As the Chinese Government likes to say, one should always hear what the others have to say and watch their deeds.’
Labour MP Sarah Champion said the tactics were ‘insidious’ and had a ‘chilling’ effect
Phil Brickell (R) said the UK ‘must publicly challenge the regime in Beijing on its systematic targeting of dissident political voices around the world’
A government spokesperson told MailOnline: ‘Attempts by foreign governments to coerce, intimidate, harass, or harm their critics overseas, undermining democracy and the rule of law, are unacceptable.
‘We encourage anyone impacted to report concerns to the police.’
On Tuesday, when questioned about transnational repression, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer told MPs: ‘State action in this country is growing, as are state-based threats.
‘It is an important strand of the work we are doing on defence and security and it is constantly raised in international discussions.
‘It is a serious threat and we generally underestimate that threat – it’s very important we are alive to it.’
A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy said: ‘In recent times, overseas anti-China forces have fabricated the so-called “transnational repression”, to maliciously slander and smear China. We firmly oppose this.
‘China has always respected the sovereignty of other countries, and carried out law enforcement and judicial cooperation with them in accordance with the law.
‘It’s also China’s principle to ensure that there are laws to abide by and lawbreakers must be dealt with. Criminals who flee overseas must be persecuted by Chinese law.’
