4d ago

‘I don’t expect to live a normal life’: how a Leeds teenager woke up with a Chinese bounty on her head

www.theguardian.com

Media outlets across east Asia were reporting that Cheung, who had just finished her A-levels, had been declared a threat to national security by officials in Hong Kong. There was an offer of HK$1m (£94,000) to anyone who could assist in her arrest or capture.

Friends said: ‘Sorry, you are a criminal in Hong Kong now so we can’t be associated with you.’ Even friends in Leeds stopped seeing me

Europe @feddit.org

Davriellelouna @lemmy.world

4d ago

‘I don’t expect to live a normal life’: how a Leeds teenager woke up with a Chinese bounty on her head

www.theguardian.com /global-development/2025/aug/11/leeds-teenager-china-chloe-cheung-democracy-protest-hong-kong

United Kingdom @feddit.uk

Davriellelouna @lemmy.world

4d ago

‘I don’t expect to live a normal life’: how a Leeds teenager woke up with a Chinese bounty on her head

www.theguardian.com /global-development/2025/aug/11/leeds-teenager-china-chloe-cheung-democracy-protest-hong-kong

48 comments

Holy shit, she was just a kid speaking out about her experiences! I hope she can stay safe in the UK and live a normal life. Poor gal.
- Xi's police aren't going into Brixton.
  
  China does in fact have secret police in other countries
  
  Sadly, it wouldn't be surprising if they were already there. The International Consortium of Investigating Journalists (Panama Papers etc.) even has a specific hashtag for these operations, #ChinaTargets. https://www.icij.org/investigations/china-targets/china-transnational-repression-dissent-around-world/
  Half of the targets interviewed by ICIJ and its media partners said the harassment extended to family members back home, who suffered intimidation and were interrogated by police or state security officials one or more times. Several victims told ICIJ that their family members in China or Hong Kong were harassed by police shortly after they had participated in protests or public events overseas. Sixty said they believed they had been followed or were targets of surveillance or spying by Chinese officials or their proxies; 27 said they were victims of an online smear campaign, and 19 said they had received suspicious messages or experienced hacking attempts, including by state actors. Some said their bank accounts in China and Hong Kong had been frozen. Officers from both the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of State Security — two of the Chinese agencies with intelligence capacity — were responsible for intimidating some of the targets and their families, the testimonies show. Twenty-two people said they received physical threats or had been assaulted by civilian CCP supporters.
  
  In 2022, a pro-democracy protester demonstrating on the pavement was dragged into China’s consulate in Manchester before being beaten up in a “barbaric” attack.
  Did you not read the article? It's already happened at least once. Even if this attack wasn't from Chinese officials, pro-democracy protesters still face danger and harassment.
  
  lol. Yes they are. They’re already there as normal people who are forced to obey when called on.
My partner is a refugee / enemy of her former state for advocating democracy. Her friend was on the phone with her (the friend’s) brother when he was kidnapped and disappeared. Another of her friends was targeted in his home (abroad) and has to keep his travel plans secret. And that country is nowhere near as powerful as China. This woman is extremely brave.
Her family, says Cheung, “knew I was someone who doesn’t know how to shut up. They didn’t want either of us to end up in prison for speaking our mind, because my mum said, ‘You are kind of nobody. No one would know that you’re in prison.’”
Good on the family for leaving the country.
ML: China best, this is fake.
Tomorrow, she is missing…
ML: She is lying. She is faking. Western propaganda
Next week dead in a ditch…
ML: Suicide by gunshot to back of head.
- That’s a bit too humane for tankies. I’d rather expect „she’s a removed and deserves to die” from the get go.
  
  With a touch of what about the CIA.
- I have an acquaintance who is Chinese, and the propaganda really got to him. I keep suggesting things maybe aren't always really as they might seem. But no, they certainly are, and China is better than every other country in every way.
  
  I have a friend who is actually from China (and now in the states), and they talk so much shit about China, it’s crazy. The mind control is deep.
  
  On a material front, it does look that way, given that China does manufacture pretty much everything.
It's crazy how, here in Brazil, we kind of have to chose now if we stay besides USA or China... We hate what Trump is doing to us, but at the same time, our partners in BRICS are not a bed of roses either... It seems the bipolarization of the world is coming to its max now, again, after cold war...
- From an American: sorry.
  I know it doesn’t mean much, but there's a significant fraction of Americans who hate what Trump is doing to y'all, including some of my family. Tons of people here hate Trump, and I mean hate his guts, even former Republicans.
  I don’t know China as well, but it seems like there’s a lot more political unity there.
  …But also, let our dumpster fire be a lesson, I guess. It can happen to you. Ban our stuff, please, especially Big Tech.
- Alliances are drawn out of self interest not morality.
  
  Not many of us want to piss off either psycho gov't, NGL. Don't throw out shitty platitudes like that unless you're commiserating.
- our partners in BRICS
  There are no BRICS partners. The union literally does nothing but yap contrarian lmao
  
  You're maybe right... I'd love to see an alternative currency for international trade though. We're done with US Dollars.
- Did it make a difference when China built that big container port in Peru and started connecting it with railways to the Atlantic coast?
  
  Not yet... At least here se don't see any movement or change yet...
- Um literalmente apoiou a ditadura e está fazendo a mesma coisa de novo, e você tá preocupado com o que talvez supostamente, segundo os estados unidos, a China pode fazer?
  
  Me diga se vc gostaria de viver hoje na China, Rússia, Índia... Talvez no Irã? Ditaduras declaradas, a tempos! Eu concordou que o BR não pode se vender aos EUA (de novo) mas a alternativa também não é lá muito promissora...
how does one check if there is a Chinese bounty on themselves?
asking because I was contacted by Chinese nationals that worked in the consulate in Texas hours after publicly expressing China can go fuck itself on Reddit. weeks later that same place was on the news for burning thousands of documents in their parking lot and everyone inside fleeing back to China now listed as spies.
also when I say contacted, I mean they emailed me and sent messages on LinkedIn. my Reddit account was never linked to my personal identity.
edit: oh yeah, China can still go fuck itself.
- how does one check if there is a Chinese bounty on themselves?
  Maybe ask @ Lemmy/ China instance? Make sure you get the correct one.
- Wait how did they still get your email and LinkedIn?
  
  gonna guess they have a profile on everyone on Reddit.
  I mean, it's no secret that Reddit has deep ties to Chinese financing.
I read “woke up with a Chinese beautiful head” and I was like omg can we all do this, is this tips
Free Hong Kong SAR, Manchuria, Tibet, and West Taiwan. One day, the PRC will implode and the White Sun will be raised over Peking.

48 comments