‘They can reach me wherever’: China using financial tactics to coerce people who flee, says report

Christopher Mung Siu-tat, executive director of the Hong Kong Labour Rights Monitor, says he has been targeted with tax letters from Hong Kong authorities despite having fled the city years ago to escape Beijing's national security laws. The financial threats are part of what researchers describe as transnational repression—a coordinated effort by Chinese authorities to intimidate and coerce dissidents and activists living abroad. Mung's experience has prompted calls for the UK government to address what advocates say is an expanding pattern of harassment targeting Hong Kong exiles on British soil. The case illustrates how Beijing is using administrative and financial mechanisms—beyond traditional surveillance and intimidation—to maintain control over people who have sought refuge outside Hong Kong and mainland China.