Hong Kong activist harassed across continents as UK weighs China ties and new embassy

A pro-democracy activist who fled Hong Kong says she has become the target of a transnational campaign of harassment that crossed continents to the United Kingdom, with AI-generated pornographic images mailed to her neighbours in Berkshire. The photos, sent from Macau, depict a young Asian woman in sexual poses and are presented as if she is offering services, aiming to damage her reputation and threaten her safety. Carmen Lau, 30, sits in a chair at a quiet London-area home, wrapped against the December chill, recounting how the images looked so real when her constituency MP delivered them to her after she was notified of the mailings. “No one should be targeted with such sexual violence,” she said, describing the distress of seeing real-looking, deceptive depictions of herself. She added that her immediate concern is accountability and the inability to pinpoint those responsible or how far the material has spread online.

The episode is part of a broader pattern of state-backed harassment aimed at dissidents abroad, a pattern that has included previous intimidation such as “Wanted” posters and online threats. Lau says the latest attack followed a wave of pressure and surveillance she faced in Hong Kong before she fled in July 2021, eventually seeking sanctuary in the UK. By September that year, she publicly announced her settlement in Britain, triggering online harassment from Beijing’s supporters and bots. She has since taken security precautions, including CCTV around temporary accommodation, motion sensors inside, and digital safeguards such as burner phones and a permanent VPN to shield her online activities.

In her own words, the attack is chilling not only for its personal nature but for what it suggests about Beijing’s reach. Lau has been accused by Hong Kong authorities of “incitement to secession, and collusion with a foreign country or with external elements to endanger national security,” charges she dismisses as manufactured and unjust. The jog between Hong Kong’s political arena and London’s suburbs underscores a transnational dimension to Beijing’s strategy: to intimidate dissidents abroad, strain Western democracies, and test the resolve of host nations’ commitments to free expression and safety. Lau’s experience is part of a pattern that includes earlier intimidation, such as one million Hong Kong-dollar rewards offered for information about her or for actions against Chinese embassies in London.

The harassment comes as Britain faces a set of closely watched questions about its relationship with Beijing. Lau says the prospect of Sir Keir Starmer visiting China next month and the government’s push to establish a large Chinese embassy in London near the Tower of London complicates a narrative in which human rights protections are balanced against trade and diplomatic considerations. She criticizes what she sees as an overemphasis on economic interests and a warming approach to Beijing, warning that closer ties could embolden repression at home and abroad. “This prioritising of economic interests over human rights signals to those who are watching that they can act freely in the UK,” Lau said, describing how a friendship with Beijing could enable new forms of pressure against dissidents.

Her concerns extend to the planned mega-embassy at the former Royal Mint Court, a site she says would become a security liability and a symbol of Beijing’s footprint in Britain. She argues the site is strategically ill-suited for a democratic state and notes that China has a history of privacy- and security-related tactics that worry her about possible basement rooms and other facilities that could be used for coercive purposes inside the embassy complex. Lau has little faith in the police’s ability to shield her from such pressure, recounting that until the latest wave of harassment, Thames Valley Police had focused on curbing her public comment rather than providing physical protection. She described a memorandum of understanding offered by authorities as insufficient risk-based protection and said resources would be better directed toward safeguarding individuals who face state-backed intimidation.

The sequence of events—front-page reporting in a Beijing-controlled outlet in 2021, the subsequent withdrawal of funding for Lau’s office, and the perception of constant surveillance—reflects a long arc of pressure that has not ceased with Lau’s relocation. She recalls the moment a white Toyota SUV, favored by security services in the region, shadowed her home in Hong Kong with an agent filming from behind tinted windows, a moment that cemented her fear for both her own safety and that of her family. Those memories, she says, still influence her day-to-day decisions: she avoids routes through airspace tied to China, refuses to land in countries with extradition agreements with Beijing, and remains vigilant about who can contact her. Yet the political reality remains: the British government continues to engage with Beijing on a range of issues, including trade and broad regional strategy, while dissidents like Lau highlight the costs and risks of those ties.

What happens next in this case—and in Britain’s broader approach to China—remains uncertain. Lau says she has not given up hope that accountability can be pursued through international channels and judicial routes, but she emphasizes that the system must do more to shield critics of Beijing who live in exile. “If you are not able to hold these people accountable, how do you protect others who are still at risk?” she asked. For now, she carries on with her advocacy, hoping that the memory of those who have sacrificed for Hong Kong’s democracy will help sustain the movement she joined decades ago.

This report draws on material published by multiple outlets, including the Daily Mail, which detailed Lau’s experiences and the broader patterns of transnational harassment faced by Hong Kong dissidents living in the UK. The situation highlights a broader tension confronting Western democracies: balancing engagement with a rising power while safeguarding the rights of refugees and exiles who campaign for political reform at home. The questions Lau raises—whether leaders like Starmer will uphold human rights while negotiating with Beijing, and whether Britain will prevent new forms of state-backed intimidation from setting up shop on its soil—are not easily answered, but they are central to the debate over Britain’s role in a rapidly changing global landscape.