On the eve of Christmas last year, Carmen Lao woke up to find that she had received a bonus of 100,000 pounds, headed by China.
The former Hong Kong County Adviser, who is now living in the United Kingdom, was one of six supporters of democracy by the Hong Kong police for $ 1 million Hong Kong.
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In the months since then, Carmen faced severe intimidation and harassment – which led to this neighbor Receive messages separating their merit.
She described that the Chinese factors suspected in London – and spoke about their shock in realizing that the regime had put its speech in the United Kingdom.
Carmen lived in fear of thinking that her house was raided – and the followers were placed on her car.
The UK called for more effort to take over China, and urged Keir Starmer not to fill Beijing to make economic gains.
The 30 -year -old spoke exclusively to the sun to exchange her life experience from the Hong Kong Police.
She said: “After the reward, there was a lot of physical and psychological intimidation that targeted myself as well as the other individuals in the bonus list as well.”
“I have put an additional caution in protecting myself, while I still want to continue to defend the Hong Kong case.”
Shortly after the deployment of her reward, Carmen was walking in the streets of London when she noticed that she was chased by strangers.
“I had no idea about who they were,” she said. “Maybe they were just bonus fishermen. Or maybe they were actually Chinese factors.”
But only this pressure was amplified when her neighbors received messages that determine the price on her head.
These messages included the UK phone number to call, along with a million Hong Kong dollar offer for information that leads to their delivery to the Chinese embassy.
The messages, which Carmen shared on social media, claimed that she was required to “incite separation” and “collusion with a foreign country.”
Carmen said: “I felt very tense at that moment because I was not at home and I did not know whether my house was actually amazed or someone actually put cameras or followers on my car or nearby.
“So I was very afraid when I was told.”
She added that the “most important part” knew that the people who were targeting it had put their address and personal details in Britain.
“If this could happen to me, this may actually happen to anyone who is still in movement or is still keen to pressure for democracy for Hong Kong,” Carmen said.
Lao was one of six activists in Hong Kong, who supported democracy, which was targeted by the pro -Biggen authorities last December.
But there are more numbers that found themselves under fire in a repressive campaign over the past half, which has witnessed the supporters of democracy in the national security imposed by Beijing. law.
The mass protests in Hong Kong erupted in 2019 after the regional authorities presented a draft delivery bill – which would have allowed the mainland to China to hand over the suspects.
Millions of Hong Kong moved to the streets of their city despite the muscular response from the Hong Kong Police – which used water and tear gas guns in attempts to disperse the crowds.
Draft He was suspended in the wake of these demonstrations, but the protests continued the following year when the controversial national security law was presented to a similar violent reaction.
Activists supporting democracy argued that this law, in which the region's authorities argued, are necessary to protect against the opposition, to undermine civil freedoms in the region.
Hong Kong was a British colony for more than 150 years before being delivered to China in 1997.
The prevailing deal has reached that Hong Kong will get a fixed degree of autonomy from Beijing, but activists supporting democracy argue that these freedoms may steal steady over the years.
“We have seen a lot of hope, and we have seen a possible way to achieve our cause,” Carmen said.
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Carmen was elected as a boycott consultant in Hong Kong in 2019 and became the Secretary -General of the Civil Party, one of the largest supporters of democracy, the following year.
Since then her party was forcibly dissolved, and she fled the installation in Hong Kong in 2021.
“After the National Security Law, this was overnight,” Carmen said. “This is not only the political field, but also the whole society.
“Even the air around Hong Kong, it became different. Everyone was gradually being silenced by civil society.”
While many Hong Kong residents have fled to the region since the China campaign, many activists are still targeting abroad in what is known as “national repression”.
This is when the repressive authorities are exposed to sound discussions by the repressive authorities outside their homeland – a fate that many Chinese government critics face all over the world.
Patriotism is not only included targeting individuals, but it can also see their friends and families at home who are forced or suppressed in revenge.
Carmen told The Sun that this persecution is not only felt by the frank activists, but also by its ordinary owners who have moved abroad since 2020.
She said: “Many Hong Kong owners in the UK who may not be activists, or as activists … may face harassment day by day, are photographed by some suspect supporters who claim to send them to China.
“I think this aggressive daily harassment is something that people should be familiar with as well.”
This repression is not limited to the diaspora in Hong Kong, where Muslims and Buddhists are persecuted by China around the world.
Many members of these societies have been afraid of speaking or protesting – even from democratic countries – for fear of revenge on Beijing.
Thousands of owners in Hong Kong came to the UK under the BN (O) visa track, which gives them a detailed path to residence – and ultimately sexual – in Britain.
More than 150,000 Hong Kong has moved under the plan since the introduction to 2021.
Carmen described this visa scheme as a “preventive umbrella” to Hong Kong, but stressed the need for more guarantees against Chinese revenge.
If China will cancel the passport of any activist in Hong Kong, it may leave it without citizenship – and is not eligible for consular services in the UK unless it is in the country for a sufficient period to obtain citizenship.
This comes at a time when Kerr Starmer continues to face a strong scrutiny of the government's campaign to warm relations with China.
Starmer became the first British Prime Minister in more than half a decade to meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping when they shook hands at the Group of Twenty's summit last year.
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This came after years of lukewarm relations with Beijing, which witnessed the British government orders equipment from the Chinese communications giant Huawei to remove 5G due to its security concerns.
“The current government uses the economic interest or economic growth of the United Kingdom as a reason to re -establish the relationship with China,” Carmen told the Sun.
“It seems that he has surrendered in a way that is not proportional … some human rights and democratic values that the British cherished for years to exchange with some very simple economic interests.”
Carmen also raised concerns about the new embassy planned in China in London – which will be the largest diplomatic location in Europe if built as planned.
But activists have repeatedly raised concerns about the project, as Carmen said that “Mega-ambassy” can be used as a national repression base.
China denies human rights violations and insists that it only targets threats to its national security.
But Carmen said: “With the messages that are sent to my neighbors, they encourage them to put me at the Chinese embassy
“You can imagine how it will be once if you put it on this new site. Who knows what will happen.”
Carmen added that China is “cooperating” with other authoritarian regimes, making it “more important than ever” that democratic nations are working together in response to the response.
Shortly before Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Xi Jinping Vladimir Putin pledged to partnership “no limits” between their brutal systems.
“I think they are already aware of the problematic threats,” Carmen said. “But we need a firm and decisive action at the present time,” Carmen said.
“Otherwise, the world order will change, and after that there will be no place for democracy.”
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