6 pro-democracy activists living in exile, including U.S. citizen Samuel Chu, former U.K. consulate worker Simon Cheng, activists Nathan Law and Ray Wong Toi-yeung, have been issued arrest warrants by police in Hong Kong.
The activists are being punished for fighting for Hong Kong's democracy when China aggressively imposed a new national security law in Hong Kong.
The new national security law states four categories of crime: succession, subversion of state power, local terrorist activities, and collaborating with foreign or external foreign forces to endanger national security.
The 6 activists have been charged for taking part in secession efforts for Hong Kong and colluding with foreign powers.
Wong, who currently resides in the U.K. expressed his feelings on being exiled and being arrested, "I think they want to cut off our connection with people in Hong Kong...it will make people fear that they may violate the national security law by contacting us."
Nathan Law who is also residing in the U.K. shared his frustration in a statement, "That Hong Kong has no place for even such moderate views like ours underscores the absurdity of Chinese Communist rule."
China Aid, a U.S.-based group expressed the extremity of the new national security law in a statement, "The law also positions Beijing as over the Hong Kong judicial system in cases deemed related to national security. This means that the judges in these cases must be Beijing-approved. Hong Kong residents can now also be taken to China, where they will face a courtroom with allegiance to the government."
A U.K.-based group called Hong Kong Watch shared similar views as China Aid on a Twitter post that read, "This law fundamentally compromises one-country, two-systems, and breach of the handover agreement. The details emerging put human rights in jeopardy."
The new national security law breaks the 1997 agreement between China and Hong Kong when China agreed to a "one country, two systems" arrangement to allow certain freedoms for Hong Kong when it received the city back from British control which lasted from 1841 to 1997.
