China’s new wave of crackdowns on pro-democracy activists

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Last week marked a new phase in China’s crackdown on activists.

29-year-old activist Anna Kwowk has a HK$1m bounty on her head for “colluding with foreign forces”. Like a handful of others wanted by the Hong Kong national security police, she is out of reach – living in exile in the United States of America.

But last week her 68-year-old father, Kwok Yin-sang, who still lives in Hong Kong, was found guilty of ”attempting to deal with, directly or indirectly, any funds or other financial assets or economic resources” belonging to an absconder – making him the first person to be convicted under a localised Hong Kong-version of China’s National Security Law, which was introduced in 2020.

He now faces a sentence of up to seven years in prison. His conviction comes days after the sentencing of Jimmy Lai, the founder of a Hong Kong-based newspaper who is currently in solitary confinement for national security offences after what many critics have described as a politically-motivated prosecution.

However, the case against Kwok Yin-sang breaks new ground as the first time a family member of an overseas activist has been prosecuted under the National Security Law.

His conviction indicates the lengths the Chinese government is prepared to go in enforcing it.

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Photography by Alex Wong/Getty Images