Disturbing letters from Hong Kong have turned up in Melbourne mailboxes offering a $200,000 bounty on an Australian citizen’s head.
The letters circulated last week included a photo of Kevin Yam and labelled him a ‘wanted person’.
Mr Yam worked as a lawyer in Hong Kong for 20 years and advocated democracy in the now Chinese territory, before returning to Australia in 2022.
‘Kevin is wanted on suspicion of a range of national security-related offences,’ the letters said.
‘A reward of one million Hong Kong dollars ($200,000) is being offered by the 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 or Australia Metropolitan Police.’
Mr Yam, now a PhD candidate at Melbourne Law School, said the letters were nothing short of a ‘call for me to be kidnapped’ by Chinese authorities.
‘Given the letters about me contained official Hong Kong police contact details, my conclusion is these were acts either of the Chinese or Hong Kong authorities, or parties that operate with their explicit or tacit approval,’ he wrote in a piece for the Sydney Morning Herald on Thursday
Former Hong Kong politician Ted Hui was also targeted in a campaign where pamphlets were sent to Adelaide mosques representing him as a pro-Israel lawyer who wanted to ‘wage war’ against Islamic terrorism.
‘Kevin is wanted on suspicion of a range of national security-related offences,’ the letters said
The letters circulated in Melbourne last week concerned Kevin Yam, who worked as a lawyer in Hong Kong for 20 years
Mr Yam said both the Australian government and the Opposition had ‘reacted strongly’ against both pamphlets, which was ‘reassuring for me and for Hui, as they show that threats against us are being taken seriously’.
‘The bringing of threats to Australian shores demonstrates China’s disregard for Australia’s legal sovereignty.
‘They are even closer to home than the Chinese navy’s recent into Australia’s exclusive economic zone.’
Mr Yam was referring to live firing exercises by Chinese warships beneath an area of busy commercial airspace in the Tasman Sea.
‘As much as Australia might seek to shower China with love, China has shown that it will not reciprocate,’ he added.
‘Instead, it continues to act like an authoritarian bully that will disregard Australia’s sovereignty, democracy, and social cohesion for as long as the Chinese Communist Party remains in power.’
Foreign Minister Penny Wong said this week she had raised the issue of both pamphlets with Chinese and Hong Kong officials.
‘We are a sovereign nation,’ Ms Wong said.
Mr Yam is now a PhD candidate at Melbourne Law School
‘We do not accept any one of our citizens or on our shores, people being bullied or harassed or threatened by a foreign power.
‘We expect our democracy and our citizens to be able to operate free from such interference, that kind of pressure or threats.’
Shadow Home Affairs Minister James Paterson called both campaigns ‘completely unacceptable and illegal’.
In a statement to the ABC, the Hong Kong government insisted it would not send anonymous letters.
