Event Summary
On 30 April 2025, Hong Kong’s national security police arrested and charged the father of Anna Kwok, a U.S.-based activist with a bounty on her head, for allegedly attempting to access her insurance policy valued at HK$110,000. He was later granted bail on 20 May. Anna Kwok’s brother was also arrested but released on bail. This marks the first known prosecution in Hong Kong for handling the assets of a person wanted under the National Security Law. Previously, authorities had limited their actions to questioning relatives without proceeding to arrest or prosecution.
Separately, on 8 May 2025, police questioned Joe Tay’s cousin and cousin’s wife. Joe Tay is another overseas activist and recent candidate for Canada’s Conservative Party. Tay also runs “HongKonger Station,” a social media platform focused on Hong Kong affairs and has a HK$1 million bounty on his head for alleged violations of the National Security Law. These events are part of a broader strategy to exert pressure on overseas pro-democracy activists by targeting their family members remaining back home.
This event signals a deepening deterioration of the enabling environment for civil society in Hong Kong. The use of national security laws to target the relatives of activists abroad represents a troubling trend that reveal an escalation in state repression. It raises serious concerns about collective punishment, intimidation tactics, and the erosion of basic legal protections for individuals not directly involved in political activism.