I don’t feel safe in UK: The exiles with £100k bounties on their heads

Finn Lau says he became an activist “by accident” while living in London but became a “top target of the Beijing regime” after spearheading an online campaign.

Finn’s so-called “Lam Chau” strategy lobbied foreign states to sanction Hong Kong leaders and went viral.

And when the 31-year-old returned to Hong Kong to take part in a protest himself at the end of 2019, he was among demonstrators surrounded by hundreds of police officers before being arrested and held for 40 hours at a police station.  

“We were put in a car park for two days, we didn’t have the freedom or liberty to go to the toilet as we want. It was memorable,” he says.  

“At the time I was fortunate they didn’t know my identity as one of the key players of the 2019 Hong Kong movement. At the time I was using my online persona so I risked my life going back to Hong Kong.” 

Finn says while in custody there was nothing he could do “except pray to God”, adding: “I thought to myself that if I was to be released I would try my best, whatever I could do, to fight for Hong Kong’s freedom.”

China denies that Hong Kong’s extradition bill and subsequent national security law were brought in to stifle political dissent, saying they were enacted to “plug the legal loophole for safeguarding national security and to provide effective safeguards for the democratic rights”. 

It claims the national security law “marked a turning point in Hong Kong from chaos to law and order”. 

Within seven months of Finn’s return to the UK his name was published by the Hong Kong government and a warrant issued for his arrest.  

Hong Kong chief executive John Lee said Finn and other leading activists would be “pursued for life” and that “we want them to know that we will not sit and do nothing”.

Finn says his personal information was leaked to Beijing-backed newspapers and describes the HK$1m bounty as an “astonishing moment” which saw repression by Hong Kong’s authorities escalate.  

“It encourages non-state actors to harass us,” he says. 

“It may encourage people to isolate those with a bounty from the rest of the community. 

“It is causing a chilling effect across the Hong Kong community even though we are standing on British soil. There are loads of dissidents afraid of speaking up for Hong Kong, speaking for democracy.

“The bounty and repression tactics is encroaching on freedom of speech here in the UK.” 

Finn says he’s been contacted by fake journalists, who could’ve tried to gain intelligence or even physically abducted him had he accepted an interview.  

“I noticed after public events there may be some people following me,” he says. 

Finn was also attacked by three masked men in London during the first COVID-19 lockdown.  

“I thought I lost my eye… there is a scar. I was fortunate to keep my sight… I lost consciousness in the street,” he says. 

“(The) NHS spent five hours treating my injury. I got concussion. I was fortunate I did not have internal bleeding otherwise I would not be able to talk about this incident again.” 

Finn says he believes it was more likely linked to his activism than a hate crime targeting an Asian man because of COVID-19.  

“They didn’t take any of my personal belongings, my phone, my wallet. At that time I was living in west London and that address was later exposed online,” he says.  

Finn says the Metropolitan Police closed the case because there was no CCTV and the Home Office refused to meet him.  

“In a nutshell, I do not feel safe in the UK,” he says.  

“The risk of getting abducted escalated after getting the bounty. The bounty serves as a badge of honour… also of risk that I have.”

The Metropolitan Police said it would not comment on individual cases, but said it takes transnational repression “extremely seriously” and it has “growing casework relating to this activity”.