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Today in Focus

Life in the UK for one of China’s most wanted

Today in Focus

The Guardian

Daily News, News

4.65.9K Ratings

🗓️ 2 August 2023

⏱️ 32 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Hong Kong activist Finn Lau has vowed to continue his fight for democracy despite the Chinese bounty on his head. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/infocus

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

This is the Guardian.

0:08.2

Today, how did Hong Kong activist Finn Lao end up with a million dollar bounty on his head?

0:21.9

London, if you've been there, probably feels relatively safe.

0:25.9

It's the UK, a free country, mostly.

0:29.4

But there are people living in the city who experience it very differently,

0:34.7

as a much more threatening place.

0:41.6

So you imagine you are going out to buy all the trees, to Tesco, to the Lido, etc.

0:48.4

But then that 20 minutes walk, you have to keep looking around.

0:53.6

You see where there are some people who may follow you after you leave your home.

0:57.4

So that is how we would feel like.

1:00.8

Finn Lao is a Hong Kong political activist. He's in exile, living in the UK.

1:06.4

And for years, he's been on a Chinese government list of serious criminals,

1:11.2

an all day, every day. Even though he's thousands of miles from Chinese territory,

1:16.4

he feels like he's been watched.

1:19.3

A few weeks ago, Finn woke to the news that Beijing had announced a reward for his capture,

1:24.6

a million Hong Kong dollars, or a hundred thousand pounds.

1:29.2

So it's quite challenging to keep alerts all the time.

1:34.2

And sometimes I even got some weird experience.

1:37.0

For example, maybe some suspicious people will pretend to be a journalist,

1:41.9

to approach me online.

1:43.5

Or maybe take my photos during some hours of rallies.

1:55.4

That bounty is more than what the Chinese government is offering for

...

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