June
2024
The HKSAR government canceled the passports of six overseas Hong Kongers, using national-security powers passed into law earlier this year.
The 6 overseas Hong Kongers include Nathan Law, Christopher Mung, Finn Lau, Simon Cheng, Johnny Fok, and Tony Choi, who are all currently based in the UK. HK$1M bounties against them were issued by the HKSAR government in July and December last year. HKSAR authorities claim that these individuals have “continued to commit offenses under the national security law” after leaving Hong Kong.
In March of this year, the Hong Kong Legislative Council passed new national security legislation, providing several measures for authorities to punish “absconders” charged with national-security offenses, including through the cancellation of passports. This is the first time that passport cancellation measures have been used against overseas activists.
Summary
Given that the Hong Kong government can only cancel HKSAR passports, Hong Kongers who were born in British Hong Kong before 1997 and therefore hold British National (Overseas) passports will be more or less unaffected. For younger Hong Kongers born after 1997, however, as many of them are holding only HKSAR passports, they may be particularly vulnerable to the threat of passport cancellation.
It is reasonable to believe that the HKSAR government will target more overseas activists in the future with passport cancellations. We can also expect the HKSAR government to apply more pressure on overseas activists using other tools, likely by targeting their personal connections in Hong Kong and escalating its transnational repression campaign.
Analysis
