The Slow Newscast China’s shadow war: The dissidents
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Mar 31, 2026 Linden Lee, a Chinese refugee and former journalist who fled to the UK after Hong Kong protests, and Finn Lau, a pro-democracy activist from the Umbrella Movement now in exile. They describe threats, bounties and alleged recruitment and infiltration tactics aimed at silencing critics in Britain. The conversation traces fear, surveillance and community unease across the diaspora.
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Small Attacks Add Up To Coordinated Intimidation
- Individual incidents (harassment, deepfake porn, tracking) form a coordinated campaign once aggregated.
- Alexei Mostrous argues these scattered tactics combine into state-backed transnational repression targeting dissidents in the UK.
Hong Kong Activist Brutally Attacked In London
- Finn Lau was violently attacked in West London in June 2020 after being followed by three masked men during a walk.
- He woke in hospital with a broken bone, near blindness, and the police closed the case weeks later without identifying suspects.
Bounty On Activist Fuels Constant Relocation
- Finn Lau reports a 2023 Hong Kong police bounty of one million HKD (about £100,000) was placed for information leading to his arrest.
- The bounty forces him to move home frequently and live under constant security concerns in East London.