Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières
For more than two years, many people who took part in the 2019-2020 uprising have been imprisoned in Hong Kong, including trade unionists Lee Cheuk-yan, Carol Ng and Winnie Yu.
A further step was taken on 3 July when arrest warrants were issued for eight opponents exiled abroad (including three former MPs and a leader of the former HKCTU trade union centre). They are accused of colluding with foreign forces to endanger national security and face sentences of up to life imprisonment.
Rewards of around US$ 130,000 have been promised to those helping to arrest them (1).
A newspaper linked to Hong Kong’s government claims that China, as a member of the International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol), is entitled to request international cooperation from member countries to help arrest the fugitives.
The Chief Constable of the Hong Kong Police explained that he was not in a position to have the eight activists arrested, but that the arrest warrants would enable him to do so if they returned to Hong Kong. In the meantime, the police is harassing their families, as is the case for the family of former MP Nathan Law.
Christopher Mung Siu-tat, one of the leaders of the former HKCTU trade union centre, refuses to be intimidated by such threats.
Now living in exile in Great Britain, he declared on 3 July: “I will not stop defending the rights of Hong Kong workers abroad, in particular by working with international organisations and trade unions in various countries”. Last spring, he was one of the headliners at a trade union demonstration in Paris against the French government’s pension reform.
Union syndicale Solidaires denounces the current increase in the repression.
In particular, we demand:
– the release of all those imprisoned for their involvement in the defence of democratic, political and social rights,
– the cancellation of all proceedings against activists, including those in exile, and the pressure on their families and friends.
Paris, le 17 July 2023
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