A Hong Kong court sentenced the father of a US-based activist to eight months in prison on Thursday for attempting to withdraw funds from his daughter’s insurance policy, in the first such case under the national security law.
Kwok Yin Sang, 69, was found guilty earlier this month of attempting to deal with financial assets belonging to an “absconder” under the 2024 security law, locally known as Article 23 legislation.
His daughter Anna Kwok, who is the executive director of the Washington-based Hong Kong Democracy Council, slammed his conviction as “transnational repression”.
Authorities have offered HK$1m (about £94,323) for information leading to the younger Kwok's arrest and later banned anyone from handling any funds for her. She is among 34 people targeted by police bounties, widely seen as part of a crackdown on dissent following the massive, anti-government protests in 2019.
They accuse her of demanding foreign sanctions, blockade and engaging in other hostile activities against China and Hong Kong during meetings with foreign politicians and government officials.
After the verdict, she said “my father was convicted simply for being my father,” and that his charge was founded on an “incoherent fiction.”
The older Kwok bought an insurance policy for his daughter when she was a toddler, and she gained control of it when she reached the age of 18. In 2025, the father sought to terminate the policy and withdraw funds amounting to roughly $11,000 (£8,114), the court heard. He was arrested the same year for allegedly attempting to deal with funds belonging to an “absconder.”
Acting principal magistrate Cheng Lim Chi handed down the sentence on Thursday. Mr Kwok's lawyer earlier argued for a 14-day prison term, saying that no evidence showed his client intended to send the money to his daughter.
Mr Kwok's charge carried a maximum prison term of seven years, but his case was heard at the magistrates’ courts, which normally hand down sentences of no more than two years.
This comes weeks after former Apple Daily newspaper founder and British citizen Jimmy Lai was sentenced to 20 years in jail after convicted in a national security trial, drawing widespread outrage and condemnation.
Police have also issued bounties for other overseas-based Hong Kong activists, including pro-democracy former lawmakers Nathan Law and Ted Hui. The US and the UK governments have condemned the bounties.
In 2025, Washington sanctioned six Chinese and Hong Kong officials whom it said were involved in “transnational repression” and acts that threaten to further erode the city’s autonomy. Weeks later, Beijing said it would sanction U.S. officials, lawmakers and leaders of nongovernmental organizations who it said have “performed poorly” on Hong Kong issues.
Hong Kong and Chinese governments insist the 2024 law and a Beijing-imposed national security law enacted in 2020 were necessary for the city's stability.
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