Hong Kong dissident harassed in UK as Beijing-backed campaign expands

A pro-democracy activist who fled Hong Kong four years ago says she has become the target of a transnational harassment campaign linked to Beijing that has reached the United Kingdom, with AI-generated pornographic imagery mailed to neighbors in Berkshire. Carmen Lau, 30, says the attacks are part of a broader effort to intimidate dissidents abroad and pressure the UK to ease its stance toward China. The images were sent from Macau, part of the Chinese regime’s network of pressure posed against activists overseas, she says.

The five black-and-white images depict a young Asian woman in a variety of sexual poses, sometimes naked, sometimes in cheap lace lingerie. In one, she appears to be performing oral sex on a man whose face is not visible. The captions include fractured English phrases such as "Welcome to visit me!" and claims about her measurements and services. Lau says the photos are fakes generated by artificial intelligence meant to besmirch her reputation and endanger her safety by making it seem she is open to sex work. She learned of the mailings after her MP, Joshua Reynolds, called to tell her that several constituents had reported receiving the images. He warned that the file could be graphic, and Lau recalls feeling shocked at how realistic it appeared. "The thing that angers me most is that I have no idea how to hold these people accountable for what they've done, how to find justice," she said.

Lau, who was in Berlin at a political event when the harassment began in earnest, fled Hong Kong in July 2021 after recognizing that she and her family were being targeted. She left with the intent of seeking sanctuary in the United Kingdom, a move she made public by September that year. Since then, she has faced a campaign of online abuse, including threats of rape and death, with state-backed accounts spreading misinformation about her past work as a pro-democracy councillor. Lau says the materials and threats have forced her to upgrade her security, including CCTV at her temporary accommodation, motion sensors inside, and a series of digital protections such as burner phones and a VPN to shield her identity online. She also limits travel to avoid potential points of exposure to Beijing’s influence, avoiding flights through Chinese airspace and countries with extradition agreements.

The harassment is not limited to social media or online chatter. In the months after Lau fled, a Beijing-controlled newspaper published a front-page story accusing her of conspiring against the Chinese government. Rumors circulated that Hong Kong councillors like her were on a hit list for arrests, and funds used to run her office were withheld. Lau says a white Toyota SUV—commonly used by security services—once trailed her home in Hong Kong with an agent filming from behind tinted windows, a sight that left her family fearful for their safety. "By then we were all living in fear," she said, recalling the moment when the car appeared and the sense that they could be targeted at any moment. Fearing for her safety and believing she could do more to help Hong Kong as a free exile, she left for London and never said goodbye to anyone.

In July 2021 Lau arrived in the UK, and by September she publicly announced that she had settled there. The decision triggered a wave of online harassment from Beijing’s bots and trolls, including death threats, rape threats, and insults aimed at her ethnicity and allegiance. Lau says she has documented the abuse with screenshots and has since tightened her security, while continuing to raise attention to the case of politically sensitive activism abroad. She has faced repeated flurries of online abuse since settling in Britain, which she says is designed to intimidate both her and others who speak out against Beijing’s governance. Lau shows screen shots of some of the messages, including a statement that she would be raped and killed by anti-China actors if she remained in the West. It is a reminder that her fight is not limited to Hong Kong’s streets but has become a transnational contest of political will.

The episode comes amid a broader debate in Britain about how to balance engagement with China with security concerns and human-rights advocacy. Lau’s case underscores two questions for the British government: how a prime minister who has pledged to push back against Beijing can sustain a relationship with a regime that she says uses harassment to silence dissent, and how Britain should respond to China’s plans to open a mega-embassy in London at the Royal Mint Court site near the Tower of London. Lau argues that such an outpost would be a strategic threat rather than a channel for constructive diplomacy, noting that the UK and China have very different political systems and legal norms. "The UK is a democracy while China is not. Why would you allow an autocracy to have this outpost, especially on an historic site?" she asked. She worries that stronger ties with Beijing could enable more repression on British soil, and she calls Starmer’s government naïve for assuming it can reconcile democratic values with aggressive actions by Beijing.

For London, the more immediate concern is the safety of dissidents abroad and how to protect them when there are few mechanisms to hold Beijing accountable. The police response to Lau’s case has been cautious. Thames Valley Police initially advised her to reduce actions that might provoke China, arguing that the immediacy of the risk did not justify additional protection. Since the most recent wave of harassment, Lau says police door-to-door inquiries and forensic examinations of the letters have produced little in the way of a lead, though she notes that authorities have since intensified efforts to address gender-based harassment and to safeguard victims who speak out. Lau says the police have acknowledged that the danger is real and that they are taking steps to respond, but she remains skeptical about their capacity to shield dissidents from a well-resourced, state-backed campaign.

What keeps Lau moving is her commitment to the people of Hong Kong. She grew up in a cosmopolitan family, with a father who ran a jewelry business and a mother from a fishing family on Lantau Island. She misses home and her friends, and she often walks past London’s tall towers, thinking of the skyline she loves and the people who still strive for democratic freedoms there. She is determined to continue speaking out, even if that means living with the constant fear of a regime that seeks to silence dissent wherever it can. "What keeps pushing me forward is the people of Hong Kong. It’s not about the place itself or power; it’s about our people. Sometimes I think I will never be able to go back, and I feel very small as a person out in the world. But anything that happens to me here is nothing compared to those who have already sacrificed their freedom," she said.

Her case has become a lens on Britain’s own responsibilities toward Hong Kong’s democrats and the long-running tension between human rights advocacy and economic opportunities in the UK-China relationship. As the government contemplates a potential visit by Prime Minister Starmer to China and proceeds with planning for a Beijing embassy on British soil, Lau’s experiences suggest that the costs of appeasing Beijing may fall most heavily on dissidents abroad. She hopes Britain will stand firm in protecting those who speak out and will ensure that the crackdown on Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement does not metastasize through the transnational space, where attackers can exploit distance and anonymity to threaten lives. "Britain has a historic responsibility for Hong Kongers and a long tradition of liberal democracy. I want to see action, not empty rhetoric," she said. The coming months will test whether the United Kingdom can reconcile its strategic interests with its moral obligations to protect those who risk everything to defend democratic rights.