Hong Kong security chief condemns BBC interview with city’s youngest fugitive

Chris Tang accuses BBC of ‘depriving readers of their right to the truth’ by excluding government response in its article

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Chloe Cheung, who left Hong Kong for the UK in 2020, is the city’s youngest fugitive with a HK$1 million bounty offered by the government. Photo: Handout

Published: 9:18am, 17 Feb 2025Updated: 10:14pm, 17 Feb 2025

Hong Kong’s security chief has condemned an “unfounded and fact-twisting” article published by the BBC in which the city’s youngest fugitive wanted for alleged national security offences shared how she became an opposition activist.

The city’s national security police on Monday also brought in an aunt of Carmen Lau Ka-man, another wanted activist, for questioning.

In a letter to the BBC’s editor on Sunday, Secretary for Security Chris Tang Ping-keung accused the British news outlet of “depriving readers of their right to the truth” by not including the Hong Kong government’s response in the interview with wanted activist Chloe Cheung Hei-ching.

“We are also extremely appalled that you have chosen not to include the response of the [Hong Kong] government in the article despite your inquiry on this topic, thus depriving your readers of their right to the truth,” the minister said.

“It is disappointing that the BBC would allow publication of such a biased article.”

Cheung, who had just turned 20 this year, left the city in August 2020 and is now based in the United Kingdom. She was placed on the wanted list last December with a HK$1 million (US$128,500) bounty and accused of incitement to secession and collusion with a foreign country or with external elements to endanger national security.