Father of US-based Hong Kong activist convicted under national security law

HONG KONG — The father of a U.S.-based activist wanted by Hong Kong authorities was convicted of attempting to deal with an absconder’s financial assets on Wednesday, in the first court case of its kind brought under a homegrown national security law.

Kwok Yin-sang’s daughter Anna is the executive director of the Washington-based Hong Kong Democracy Council. Authorities in 2023 offered 1 million Hong Kong dollars (about $127,900) for information leading to her arrest and later banned anyone from handling any funds for her — widely seen as part of a yearslong crackdown on challenges against Beijing’s rule following the massive, anti-government protests in 2019.

Kwok, 69, was arrested in April 2025 under the security law, locally known as Article 23 legislation, enacted a year before. He was accused of having attempted to obtain funds from an insurance policy under his daughter’s name. He pleaded not guilty.

Acting principal magistrate Cheng Lim-chi found him guilty on Wednesday, saying Kwok must have known his daughter was an absconder and he was attempting to handle her assets.

According to previous hearings, Kwok bought the insurance policy for Anna when she was a toddler and she gained control of it when she reached 18 years old. The father in 2025 wanted to cancel the policy and get funds from it, the court heard.

Kwok’s lawyer, Steven Kwan, pleaded for a lesser sentence for his client, saying there was no evidence to show his client was trying to get the money to send to his daughter. He suggested the judge consider a 14-day prison term.

While the maximum sentence for his charge is seven years of imprisonment, but his case was heard at the magistrates’ courts, which normally hands down a maximum sentence of two years.

His sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 26.

Authorities have accused the daughter of requesting foreign sanctions, blockade and engaging in other hostile activities against China and Hong Kong through meeting foreign politicians and government officials.

After the verdict, the Hong Kong Democratic Council said on X that “it represents yet another escalation of transnational repression.”

Amnesty International Hong Kong Overseas spokesperson Joey Siu said the conviction was apparently politically motivated.

“It also sets a dangerous precedent, designed to terrify and silence others who continue to speak out about Hong Kong issues from overseas,” she said in a statement, calling for Kwok’s release.

The police’s bounties targeting overseas-based Hong Kong activists, including Siu and pro-democracy former lawmakers Nathan Law and Ted Hui, have drawn criticism from the U.S. and the U.K. governments.

In 2025, Washington sanctioned six Chinese and Hong Kong officials who it alleged were involved in “transnational repression” and acts that threaten to further erode the city’s autonomy. It said Beijing and Hong Kong officials have used Hong Kong’s national security laws extraterritorially to intimidate, silence and harass some activists who were forced to flee overseas.

Weeks after that, China said it would sanction U.S. officials, lawmakers and leaders of nongovernmental organizations who it said have “performed poorly” on Hong Kong issues.

After Beijing imposed a 2020 national security law on the city, many leading activists were arrested or silenced. Others fled abroad and continued their advocacy for Hong Kong, a British colony that returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

Both China and Hong Kong governments insist the security laws were crucial for the city’s stability.