The Hong Kong government has issued another stack of arrest warrants for pro-democracy activists living overseas: 19 people accused of “subversion,” one of the words that the CCP uses to characterize resistance to its oppression. Hong Kong has placed bounties of HK$200,000 (around $25,500 USD) on the heads of 15 of those named. Four of the 19 are also subject to previous arrest warrants, as well as previously issued bounties of HK$1 million (around $127,000 USD) (NBC News, July 25, 2025).
The crime that is the occasion of the present warrants is that of “organizing or participating in the ‘Hong Kong Parliament,’ a group that authorities…say aimed to subvert state power, under the law Beijing imposed in 2020 following months of pro-democracy protests in 2019.”
Violate the crime, do the time
All is not lost. “If offenders voluntarily give up continuing to violate the crime, turn themselves in, truthfully confess their crimes, or provide key information that helps solve other cases, they may be eligible for reduced punishment,” babbled the Hong Kong police or whichever linguist drafts their public announcements.
Perhaps the idea is that the offenders should “give up violating the law” by continuing to oppose the CCP or should stop “committing the crime” of still speaking in favor of democracy and freedom. But how does one “violate a crime” (and does the crime feel ashamed afterward)? The Hong Kong government is itself, of course, committing a crime by issuing these warrants and bounties in order to harass innocent persons.
The expatriate Hong Kong activists are living in different countries. Some in the U.S., some in Australia, some in Britain, others elsewhere. The ones who ended up in Great Britain may find that the sceptered isle is not the best possible refuge; the eager-to-appease Labour government has just decided that “ ‘risking Hongkongers’ lives’ by reintroducing extradition” of renegades to China is a good idea.
In 2020, the Tory government suspended its extradition treaty with Hong Kong after the National Security Law of that year rendered Hongkongers and especially pro-democracy activists vulnerable to arrest and imprisonment for fake-crime like “subversion” (opposing the CCP dictatorship) and “collusion” (talking to sympathetic foreigners).
Case by case
Now Labour has established a “ ‘case by case’ extradition route between the UK and Hong Kong that was not available when the treaty was suspended.”
Security Minister Dan Jarvis says that under the new procedure, China would have to provide reasons for each extradition, and that he would “never allow a situation where Hongkongers or any other nationality is extradited for politically motivated purposes.”
Is it possible that, as the shadow national security minister, Alicia Kearns, suggests, the Chinese Communist Party would request extradition of dissidents on the basis of false charges? That CCP personnel making the requests would be able to come up with the words need to convince UK officials that a politically motivated extradition request is not politically motivated? Is there a history of CCP conduct that members of the UK government could consult?
Why this insanity is happening now: “The change was made just days after Jonathan Powell [show above, left], the national security adviser, held talks in Beijing with Wang Yi [right], one of the Communist Party’s top diplomats.”
