ON CHRISTMAS Eve last year, Carmen Lau woke up to find she had a £100k bounty on her head set by China.
A former district councillor from Hong Kong, currently residing in the UK, was one of six pro-democracy activists pursued by Hong Kong authorities with a HK$1 million bounty on her head.
Since that time, Carmen has endured severe intimidation and harassment, which escalated to the point where her neighbours received letters that mentioned the reward on her.
She recounted how she was followed throughout London by individuals believed to be Chinese agents, and expressed her disbelief upon discovering that the regime had uncovered her residence in the UK.
Carmen lived in fear thinking her home could raided – and that trackers may have been placed on her car.
She called on the UK to do more to take on China, and urged Keir Starmer not be cowed by Beijing for economic gains.
The 30-year-old has spoken exclusively to The Sun to share her experience of life on the run from the Hong Kong police.
“After the bounty, there was a lot of physical and psychological intimidation targeting myself and also the other individuals who are on the same bounty list as well,” she said.
“I’ve been putting extra caution in protecting myself, while I still wish to continue to advocate for the Hong Kong cause.”
Shortly after her bounty was posted, Carmen was walking through the streets of London when she noticed she was being stalked by strangers.
“I had no idea who they were,” she said. “Maybe they were just bounty hunters. Or maybe they were actually Chinese agents.”
But this pressure was only amplified when her neighbours received letters outlining the price on her head.
These messages included a UK phone number to contact alongside the offer of HK$1 million for information leading to her being handed over to the Chinese Embassy.
The letters, which Carmen shared on social media, claimed she was wanted for “incitement to secession” and “collusion with a foreign country”.
Carmen said: “I was quite stressed at that moment because I wasn’t at home and I didn’t know whether my home was actually being raided or someone actually put cameras or trackers on my car or nearby.
“So I was I was quite scared when I was told.”
She added that the “most concerning part” was knowing that the people targeting her had worked out her address and personal details in Britain.
“If it could happen to me, it could actually happen to anyone who is still in the movement or who are still eager to push for democracy for Hong Kong,” Carmen said.
Lau was one of six Hong Kong pro-democracy activists who were targeted by pro-Beijing authorities last December.
But far more figures have found themselves under fire in a sustained crackdown over the past half decade, which has seen pro-democracy activists jailed under a Beijing-imposed National Security Law.
Mass protests erupted in Hong Kong in 2019 after a draft extradition bill was put forward by regional authorities – that would have allowed mainland China to extradite suspects.
Millions of Hong Kongers took to the streets of their city in spite of a muscular response from the Hong Kong police – who used water cannons and tear gas en masse in attempts to disperse the crowds.
The bill was shelved in the wake of these demonstrations, but protests continued into the following year when the contentious National Security Law was introduced to a similarly fierce backlash.
Pro-democracy activists argued this law, which the region’s authorities argue is needed to guard against dissent, would fatally undermine the region’s civil liberties.
Hong Kong was a British colony for more than 150 years before it was handed over to China in 1997.
The handover deal set out that Hong Kong would have a firm degree of autonomy from Beijing, but pro-democracy activists argue these freedoms have been steadily eroded over the years.
“We saw a lot of hope, and we saw a potential pathway to achieve our cause,” Carmen said.
Carmen was elected as a district councillor in Hong Kong in 2019 and became Secretary-General of the Civic Party, one of the largest pro-democracy parties, the following year.
Her party has since been forcibly dissolved, and she fled the mounting repressing in Hong Kong in 2021.
“After the National Security Law it was a overnight oppression,” Carmen said. “That’s not only the political sphere, but also the whole society.
“Even the air around Hong Kong, has become different. And gradually everyone was being silenced and civil society dismantled.”
While many Hong Kongers have fled the territory since China’s crackdown, many activists continue to be targeted overseas in what is known as “transnational repression”.
This is when vocal dissident figures are persecuted by repressive authorities outside of their home country – a fate faced by many critics of the Chinese government around the world.
Transnational repression does not only include the targeting of individuals, but can also see their friends and families at home coerced or suppressed in retaliation.
Carmen told The Sun that this persecution isn’t just felt by outspoken activists, but also by ordinary Hong Kongers who have moved abroad since 2020.
She said: “A lot of Hong Kongers in the UK who may not be an activist, or as activists… could possibly face harassment day by day, being photographed by some suspected China supporters claiming that they would send it back to China.
“I think this daily micro-aggressive harassment is something that people should also be aware of.”
This repression is not limited to the Hong Kong diaspora, with Uyghur Muslims and Tibetan Buddhists also facing persecution from China around the world.
Many members of these communities have become afraid to speak out or protest – even from democratic countries – out of fear of reprisal from Beijing.
Thousands of Hong Kongers have come to the UK under the BN(O) visa pathway, which gives them a bespoke pathway to residency – and eventually citizenship – in Britain.
More than 150,000 people have moved from Hong Kong under the scheme since its 2021 introduction.
Carmen described this visa scheme as “protective umbrella” for Hong Kongers, but stressed the need for further safeguards against Chinese retalliation.
If China were to cancel the passport of any Hong Kong activist, it could leave them stateless – and ineligible for UK consular services unless they had been in the country long enough to get citizenship.
It comes as Keir Starmer continues to face intense scrutiny over the government’s drive to warm relations with China.
Starmer became the first British PM in more than half a decade to meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping when they shook hands at last year’s G20 summit.
This came after years of frosty relations with Beijing, which saw the British government order equipment from Chinese telecoms giant Huawei to be removed from its 5G network over security fears.
“The current government uses economic interest or economic growth of the United Kingdom as a reason to re-establish relationship with China,” Carmen told The Sun.
“And it seems that it has disproportionately given up… some human rights and democratic values that the British cherished for years to trade off with some very minor economic interests.”
Carmen also raised concerns about China’s planned new embassy in London – which would be the largest diplomatic outpost in Europe if built as planned.
But activists have repeatedly raised fears about the project, with Carmen saying the “mega-embassy” could be used as a base for transnational repression.
China denies human rights abuses and insists it is only targeting threats to its national security.
But Carmen said: “With the letters being sent to my neighbours encouraging them to place me in the Chinese Embassy
“You could imagine how it would be once if I got put it in that new site. Who knows what will happen.”
Carmen added that China is “collaborating” with other authoritarian regimes, making it “more essential than ever” that democratic nations work together in response.
Shortly before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin pledged a “no limits” partnership between their brutal regimes.
“I do think that they already realise the problematic threats. But we need assertive and decisive action right now,” Carmen said.
“Otherwise the world order would shift, and then there will no longer be a place for democracy.”
