By Kanishka Singh and Liz Lee
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. State Department said Hong Kong had offered rewards for six more pro-democracy activists believed to have violated national security laws, and the confiscation of the passports of seven more amounted to attempts at intimidation.
The State Department also separately condemned China for taking action against two Canadian institutions and 20 individuals involved in human rights issues involving Uighurs and Tibet.
“We reject the Hong Kong government’s efforts to intimidate and silence individuals who choose to make the United States their home,” the US State Department said in a statement on Thursday, adding that some of the targeted individuals were based in the United States.
China’s foreign ministry said Hong Kong’s law enforcement actions were necessary to protect national sovereignty and security.
“The extraterritorial application of Hong Kong’s national security law is fully in line with international law and practice,” ministry spokesman Mao Ning told reporters at a press conference on Friday.
She called the US hypocritical for “attacking” Hong Kong’s actions while “abusing the concept of national security and exercising illegal long-arm jurisdiction.”
A Chinese-imposed national security law on Hong Kong triggered US sanctions and was used to jail pro-democracy activists after violent street protests in 2019.
China’s National Security Protection Bureau in Hong Kong said on Tuesday it supported the actions because the individuals had engaged in “anti-Chinese” and destabilizing acts.
On Sunday, Beijing separately targeted the Canada-based Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project and the Canada-Tibetan Committee, announcing measures including asset freezes and entry bans.
The sanctions contrast with sanctions Canada imposed earlier this month against eight Chinese it said were involved in “serious human rights violations.”
Mao said the countermeasures were “entirely legitimate and reasonable.”
“We advise the country in question to face its own problems and stop political manipulation under the pretext of so-called human rights,” she said.
Human rights groups accuse Beijing of widespread abuse of the Uyghurs, a mostly Muslim ethnic minority numbering about 10 million in the western region of Xinjiang, including the widespread use of forced labor in camps. Beijing denies any abuses.
China took control of Tibet in 1950. International human rights groups and exiles routinely denounce what they call China’s repressive rule in Tibetan areas.
