U.K. spy case fuels calls for closure of Hong Kong trade offices

Campaigners warn of transnational repression as U.S. weighs ban

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Protesters hold up banners outside the London HKETO at a demonstration on Tuesday. Ricker Choi, right, is an artist from Toronto whose collage is about the 2019 protests in Hong Kong. (Photo by Rhyannon Bartlett-Imadegawa)

RHYANNON BARTLETT-IMADEGAWA and PAK YIU, Nikkei staff writers

LONDON/NEW YORK -- "Shut down the ETOs!" chanted protesters in front of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in central London on Tuesday, a day after the organization's manager was charged with allegedly spying for the Chinese territory.

Fear of surveillance is running high among the Hong Kong diaspora. The city's government has offered a reward of 1 million Hong Kong dollars ($128,000) for information about each of 13 wanted fugitives. Finn Lau, an activist who now lives in the U.K., is one of them. Speaking at the protest, Lau told the crowd of a few dozen -- many with their faces covered -- that he found out on Monday that his address was one of those alleged to have been searched by a Hong Kong spy.

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