March 18, 2025
A small number of Melbourne residents have received anonymous letters purporting to offer a police bounty of $203,000 if they inform on Kevin Yam, an Australian citizen and pro-democracy activist wanted for alleged national security crimes in Hong Kong, linking him to two nearby locations.
A spokesperson for the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, told Guardian Australia the letter was “deeply worrying” and that the matter would be raised directly with officials from China and Hong Kong.
The anonymous letter – mailed from Hong Kong and delivered to some Melbourne homes on Friday – contained a photograph of Yam with a headline alleging he was a “wanted person”. It then detailed a range of alleged “national security related offences” and offered HK$1m (A$203,000) from the Hong Kong police to anyone who provided information on his whereabouts or took him to Hong Kong or Australian police.
Yam is a lawyer who lived in Hong Kong for 20 years before returning to Australia in 2022. He is one of eight overseas-based activists, the subject of Hong Kong police arrest warrants, accused in July 2023 of breaching its controversial national security law that grants authorities sweeping extraterritorial powers to prosecute acts or comments made anywhere in the world that it deems criminal.
Yam has criticised the crackdown on dissent and erosion of judicial independence in the Chinese-controlled city and has been accused of encouraging foreign governments to impose sanctions against members of the judiciary, prosecutors and government officials.
It is not known who sent the letter but its language matches a public appeals notice published on the Hong Kong police force’s official website. A UK phone number included at the bottom of the letter has also been linked to the Hong Kong police force, which was contacted for comment.
The letter, which gives a detailed account of Yam’s physical appearance, listed a residential address in the Melbourne suburb of Abbotsford and another in the Melbourne CBD. The letter was sent to homes adjacent to these locations.
“A reward of $1m HKD is being offered by Hong Kong police to any member of the public who can provide information on this wanted person and the related crime or take him to Hong Kong and Australian metropolitan police,” the letter claimed.
The letter urged people with information on Yam’s whereabouts to contact Hong Kong police force’s national security department. It also noted Hong Kong’s secretary for security, Tang Ping-keung, declared Yam an “absconder in respect of offences endangering national security” on 24 December 2024.
Similar letters with the exact formatting were mailed to neighbours of former Hong Kong district councillor Carmen Lau, who lives in the UK, earlier this month. Lau told NBC News she did not “feel safe living at my current address” as a result.
Wong’s spokesperson said the targeting of an Australian citizen was “completely unacceptable”.
“The Australian government will not tolerate surveillance, harassment or intimidation against individuals or family members here in Australia – this undermines our national sovereignty and the security and safety of Australians,” the spokesperson said.
“We are raising our concerns directly with Chinese and Hong Kong authorities.”
A Hong Kong government spokesperson said it would not issue an anonymous letter but stressed it would “take every measure” to pursue those accused of breaching its national security law. This included “cutting off their funding sources, so as to prevent and suppress them from continuing to engage in acts and activities endangering national security”.
The shadow home affairs minister, James Paterson, described the letter as an “outrageous” and “totally unacceptable” example of foreign interference. He supported the government’s efforts to contact Chinese and Hong Kong officials.
“Those who distributed this pamphlet should be investigated under the espionage and foreign interference laws,” Paterson told Guardian Australia. “Serious consequences must flow to send the strong message we won’t tolerate this crude attempted intimidation”.
In July 2023, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Mao Ning, urged Australia, the UK and the US to stop sheltering the eight activists.
“Relevant countries need to respect China’s sovereignty and the rule of law in Hong Kong, stop lending support for anti-China elements destabilising Hong Kong, and stop providing a safe haven for fugitives,” she said.
When the warrant for his arrest was issued, Yam vowed not to be silenced. He said he felt an obligation to jailed fellow pro-democracy activists “not to shut up”. Since then, he has called on the Australian government to consider sanctions against Chinese officials.
In August last year, Yam told an Australian parliamentary inquiry “the Hong Kong authority’s act of placing a bounty over my head is by no means one of merely seeking to defend China’s national security”.
“They have in fact interfered with my exercise of fundamental freedoms and democratic rights as an Australian,” Yam told a Senate standing committee on foreign affairs, defence and trade. “If they can see fit to do this to me, in respect of normal democratic discourse and interactions that took place in Australia, they can do it to any Australian.”