March 27, 2025
Federal police are investigating an anonymous and threatening letter sent to the Australian colleagues of a fugitive Hong Kong politician offering a $200,000 reward for anyone who hands him over to authorities.
Former legislator Ted Hui sought refuge in Australia in 2021 after fleeing Hong Kong on what he insists are trumped-up money laundering and national security charges during a crackdown by Beijing on the island's democratic freedoms and civil liberties. Hong Kong authorities issued an arrest warrant and a $HK1 million ($204,000) bounty in 2023 for Hui, who works as a lawyer in Adelaide.
Hui revealed in a Facebook post yesterday morning that his law firm, RSA Law, had received an airmail letter from Hong Kong saying he was wanted on a range of national security offences.
The letter promises a reward for anyone who can provide information about him or take him to Australian or Hong Kong police for questioning.
Melbourne residents received a similar letter earlier this month about Kevin Yam, an Australian academic and Hong Kong democracy activist who also faces vague national security charges in Hong Kong.
''I published this letter on my social media to tell the Hong Kong Communist Party that I am not afraid,'' Hui said in his Facebook post, which included a photo of the anonymous letter.
''The more you suppress me, the more I will speak out for Hong Kong's freedom. Of course, I will also be careful to protect my family.''
Hui said the purpose of the ''threatening'' letter was to encourage cross-border repression and ''incite others to use violence to stop my advocacy work on democracy and freedom in Hong Kong''.
''The Hong Kong Communist Party has degenerated from a police regime into a gangster regime it is no exaggeration to say that it is governing Hong Kong with gangsters,'' he said.
Hui said the letter contained several lies, including that he and his family fled Hong Kong with $3 million in proceeds of crime.
He told The Age that Australian Federal Police officers had visited the law firm to inspect the letter yesterday and would return to take a statement from him about the matter. Fake pamphlets with Hui's contact details were recently distributed to mosques in Adelaide, falsely claiming he was a ''pro-Jewish man siding with Israel to wage war against those Islamic terrorism [sic].''
A spokesperson for Foreign Minister Penny Wong said: ''Continued attempts to target individuals in Australia are reprehensible and threaten our national sovereignty, as well as the safety and security of all Australians.
''Australia will not tolerate the targeting, surveillance, harassment or intimidation against any person in Australia by a foreign government.''
Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson said: ''This continued campaign of harassment of Ted Hui is unacceptable and constitutes foreign interference.''
Yam wrote in a piece for The Age last week: ''The bringing of threats to Australian shores demonstrates China's disregard for Australia's legal sovereignty ... Our experience shows that China can definitely be hostile to ethnic Chinese in Australia if they are critical of the Chinese Communist Party.''