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espionage

Hong Kong Detains Parents of Activist Frances Hui Amid $1M Bounty, Echoing Election Interference Fears in Canada

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Sam Cooper

In a deeply alarming escalation of transnational repression that echoes threats made against a Canadian election candidate, Hong Kong’s national security police today detained the parents of U.S. resident Frances Hui, a prominent Hong Kong democracy activist who previously testified before Canada’s Parliament about Chinese government harassment on Western soil.

Hui, who fled Hong Kong and was granted asylum in Washington, D.C., faces a HK$1 million bounty issued in December 2023 under Beijing’s sweeping National Security Law. She had warned Canadian lawmakers that the Chinese Communist Party was targeting overseas activists—including herself and others with Canadian ties—through intimidation, surveillance, and harassment campaigns executed by proxies abroad.

The detention in Hong Kong on Thursday, April 10, comes just one week after the U.S. State Department sanctioned six Hong Kong and Chinese officials and two days after a bill was reintroduced in Congress to shutter Hong Kong’s de facto embassies in the U.S. Hui’s advocacy played a major role in both moves.

Hui, the Advocacy and Policy Coordinator for the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong (CFHK) Foundation, condemned the police action against her family as “emotional blackmail.”

“My parents and I have had no contact since I left Hong Kong in 2020,” Hui said in a statement. “The police arranged a crowd of media to photograph their exit from the police station—to humiliate them. This is a deliberate attempt to intimidate and silence me.”

The targeting of Hui’s family may intensify concerns in diaspora communities that the Chinese Communist Party is attempting to obtain multiple objectives, potentially sending a message timed to Canada’s 2025 federal election—especially after recent remarks from a former Liberal candidate in Markham–Unionville stoked widespread alarm.

Paul Chiang, who resigned last week amid an RCMP review into controversial remarks, had reportedly suggested that Conservative opponent Joe Tay—a Canadian citizen wanted under Hong Kong’s National Security Law—could be taken to the Chinese Consulate in Toronto to claim a bounty.

Chiang, a former Markham police officer who unseated longtime Conservative representative Bob Saroya to win Markham–Unionville for Team Trudeau in 2021, stepped down after the RCMP confirmed it was investigating his comments to Chinese-language media in January 2025.

On the latest threats to Hui and her family, CFHK Foundation President Mark Clifford said: “This is outrageous targeting of a young woman who has lived in the U.S. for the last five years and whose advocacy and freedom of speech is protected under U.S. laws. The CFHK Foundation will continue to support Frances and all those with the courage to speak out against the crimes being perpetrated in Hong Kong and the low-class bullies who perpetrate them.”

Earlier in Canada’s election campaign, which is quickly becoming marked by reports of Chinese interference, Tay, a former Hong Kong broadcaster whose independent journalism has drawn retaliation from Beijing, quickly rejected Chiang’s apology, calling it “the tradecraft of the Chinese Communist Party.” He added: “They are not just aimed at me; they are intended to send a chilling signal to the entire community to force compliance with Beijing’s political goals.”

As previously reported by The Bureau, Hui detailed her experience with transnational repression in testimony before Canada’s Subcommittee on International Human Rights. She recounted how she was targeted by a naturalized U.S. citizen—now under federal indictment in Massachusetts—who allegedly spied on dissidents for the Chinese government.

“Between 2018 and 2022, this individual spied on members and leaders of Boston-area Chinese family associations and community organizations, as well as anti-PRC dissidents,” Hui told the committee. “In one incident, he mobilized hundreds to harass us. I was followed home and had to call the police. I regularly receive phone calls from men speaking Chinese.”

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espionage

Trump: “I HAVE JUST SIGNED THE BILL TO RELEASE THE EPSTEIN FILES!”

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President Trump moved Wednesday to end years of secrecy surrounding one of the nation’s most notorious scandals, signing legislation that compels the Department of Justice to hand Congress virtually every scrap of material tied to Jeffrey Epstein. The president announced the move on Truth Social, writing, “I HAVE JUST SIGNED THE BILL TO RELEASE THE EPSTEIN FILES!”

Trump reminded supporters that he personally pressed House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune to fast-track the legislation. “Because of this request, the votes were almost unanimous in favor of passage,” he wrote, pointing to the rare level of bipartisan agreement behind a bill that forces unprecedented transparency. The Epstein Files Transparency Act requires the DOJ to deliver all unclassified records — and as much classified material as possible — to Congress within 30 days. It also directs Attorney General Pam Bondi to provide lawmakers with a list of government officials and other “politically exposed persons” tied to Epstein within just 15 days.

The measure sailed through the House in a staggering 427–1 vote Tuesday before clearing the Senate unanimously. Its path to passage wasn’t always straightforward. For months, the Trump administration had sparred with lawmakers pushing for the release, with the president often calling the frenzy around “Epstein files” a Democrat-driven hoax designed to smear him.

In his Truth Social post, Trump leaned into the history, reminding Americans that Epstein “was charged by the Trump Justice Department in 2019 (Not the Democrats!)” and that the disgraced financier “was a lifelong Democrat” who poured money into Democrat campaigns. The president also pointed to Epstein’s well-documented relationships with high-profile Democrats, listing figures such as Bill Clinton — “who traveled on his plane 26 times” — former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, activist billionaire Reid Hoffman, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, and Delegate Stacey Plaskett. “Perhaps the truth about these Democrats, and their associations with Jeffrey Epstein, will soon be revealed,” Trump wrote.

He added that the DOJ, under his direction, has already provided Congress nearly 50,000 pages of Epstein-related material — a stark contrast, he said, to the Biden administration, which “did not turn over a SINGLE file or page related to Democrat Epstein, nor did they ever even speak about him.”

For Trump, the transparency push is as much about exposing what Democrats don’t want voters to see as it is about delivering documents. He argued that the left had leaned on “the ‘Epstein’ issue” to distract from the “AMAZING Victories” of his administration. Now, with the bill signed and agencies under a firm deadline, he predicted the political tables are about to turn.

“This latest Hoax will backfire on the Democrats just as all of the rest have!” he wrote — a warning, and a promise, as Washington braces for whatever the next 30 days will reveal.

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Trump says release the Epstein files

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President Trump on Sunday urged House Republicans to vote to release any remaining government-held documents connected to Jeffrey Epstein, making clear he believes it’s time to stop allowing Democrats and the media to weaponize the scandal as a political distraction. Posting from his Truth Social account, Trump said the party should “vote to release the files” because “there is nothing to hide,” and told supporters he wants Republicans “back on point” and focused on delivering economic growth, border security, and protecting girls’ and women’s sports from radical gender activists.

Trump emphasized that the Department of Justice has already made public a massive amount of material related to Epstein — “tens of thousands of pages” — and said Democrats are the ones who should be answering questions, naming former President Bill Clinton and Democrat mega-financier Reid Hoffman as figures whose Epstein ties should be scrutinized. Trump also indicated he would direct Attorney General Pam Bondi to examine connections involving Clinton, Hoffman, and former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers.

The president said Democrats are pushing the renewed focus on Epstein as a political weapon to cloud the GOP’s record and stall momentum heading into the next legislative fights. Trump pointed to the administration’s achievements — slashing inflation from record highs, lowering prices, delivering tax cuts, rebuilding the military, attracting historic levels of investment back into the United States, restoring border enforcement, deporting criminal illegal aliens, and defending women’s athletics against biological males — as proof that Republicans should not allow the left to drag the conversation into a political circus.

“Nobody cared about Jeffrey Epstein when he was alive,” Trump wrote, adding that if Democrats had any meaningful evidence, they would have used it before “our landslide election victory.” He warned that some Republicans are being “used” by Democrats and insisted the party must stop falling into the “Epstein trap,” calling the scandal “a curse on the Democrats, not us.”

Trump’s comments come as a discharge petition to compel a House vote on releasing additional Epstein-related documents has reached the necessary signatures. Trump concluded his message by demanding Republicans stay focused on results, not theatrics, and rally behind the broader agenda to strengthen the country and “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.”

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