Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand and Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree said in a Saturday statement that this marks the third time Beijing-controlled Hong Kong has set bounties for people overseas, adding it “represents a deeply troubling escalation in the use of transnational repression by the People’s Republic of China.”

The Hong Kong government has said it “strongly opposed and disapproved of smears with distorted facts” after countries such as the US, Canada, and Australia criticised the city’s fresh bounties targeting overseas activists.