By Alasdair Pal and Christine Chen
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia Foreign Minister Penny Wong said on Tuesday she had raised with China concerns over anonymous letters sent to Australians offering a reward for information on the whereabouts of an Australian-based Hong Kong dissident.
Some residents in Melbourne received the letters late last week offering HKD$1 million ($130,000) for information about Kevin Yam, an Australian citizen and Hong Kong pro-democracy activist wanted by Hong Kong authorities for his role in organising anti-government protests in 2019.
“The Australian government does not accept other governments interfering with our citizens, making anybody feel unsafe,” Wong told a news conference on Tuesday.
Local media reported that the letters were mailed from Hong Kong and contained contact details for the Hong Kong police.
However, it was not clear who sent the letters, and there was no evidence that Beijing or Hong Kong were involved, said Wong, but added she had raised the issue with both.
“I’ll await whatever investigations come to light but I have made my view about Australians being targeted by the Hong Kong authorities very clear to both Hong Kong and to China,” she said, when asked if she believed the governments of Hong Kong or China were involved in the letters.
Spokespeople for China’s embassy in Canberra and the Hong Kong government did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Yam returned to Australia in 2022 after two decades in Hong Kong, after the territory cracked down on pro-democracy protests that brought the financial centre to a standstill in 2019 and 2020.
He is one of eight foreign-based activists wanted by Hong Kong for their role in organising the protests against new laws that granted the Hong Kong government wide-ranging extrajudicial powers.
“I will continue to live my everyday life,” Yam said in a post on X in response to the letters.
“I will not voluntarily return to Hong Kong before it is free.”
($1 = 7.7696 Hong Kong dollars)
(Reporting by Alasdair Pal and Christine Chen in Sydney; Editing by Michael Perry)
