Sexually explicit letters about exiled Hong Kong activists sent to UK and Australian addresses

Carmen Lau, pictured in London in February, has said she was ‘terrified’ when she learned of the letters containing deepfake images of her. Photograph: Eleventh Hour/Alamy

Sexually explicit letters and “lonely housewife” posters about high-profile pro-democracy Hong Kong exiles have been sent to people in the UK and Australia, marking a ratcheting up in the transnational harassment faced by critics of the Chinese Communist party’s rule in the former British colony.

Letters purporting to be from Carmen Lau, an exiled pro-democracy activist and former district councillor, showing digitally faked images of her as a sex worker were sent to her former neighbours in Maidenhead in the UK in recent weeks.