Anna Kwok, an exile based in the United States, said a Hong Kong court’s eight-month prison sentence for her father has not slowed her pro-democracy activism. Speaking to The Associated Press on Friday, she said the Hong Kong government’s decision instead underscored what she views as the personal costs of her work and how the state seeks to deter her through family pressure.
Kwok said she believes the government is trying to “use guilt” and “a lot of emotions” to “weight me down,” but she said she has “found my way to really find my calling in activism for Hong Kong.” She added that she plans to continue her activism with “more strategic” planning and “more long-term thinking,” and she said she is “not going to back down.”
The AP reported that Kwok spoke one day after the court jailed her father, Kwok Yin-sang, 69, for eight months. The case, Kwok said, brought home what she called a “very real personal cost” tied to her activism, even though she said she is the one who carries the burden publicly. She said she now also faces the added challenge of dealing with the consequences her family has to endure.
Court proceedings described by AP said her father had bought the insurance policy when she was a toddler and that she gained control of it when she reached age 18. In 2025, AP reported, he sought to terminate the policy and withdraw about $11,000, and the court heard that he was arrested and accused of attempting to deal with funds belonging to an “absconder.”
AP said the sentencing drew criticism from U.S. officials. Riley Barnes, the assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor, called for Kwok Yin-sang’s immediate release and said, in a social media post the AP referenced, that “The targeting of individuals who advocate for basic freedoms in Hong Kong and their families is unacceptable.”
Kwok also addressed what she said is the broader campaign against dissent in Hong Kong. She is among 34 people for whom the Hong Kong police have offered bounties, AP reported, with police offering 1 million Hong Kong dollars—about $127,900—for information leading to her arrest, and the government banning anyone from handling funds for her.
In her remarks to AP, Kwok said she is accused of lobbying for foreign sanctions and engaging in other hostile activities against China and Hong Kong through meetings with foreign politicians and officials. She said she is no longer able to speak with family and friends back in Hong Kong, and she said she agreed to an on-camera interview after her father’s sentencing to reassure “my family and people who care about me that I cannot really communicate with that I’m doing okay.”
Kwok said she would not accept responsibility in a way that would allow the government to succeed in burdening her with guilt about her family’s risk. She told AP, “I have to constantly remind myself that it’s not my fault, but the regime’s fault and the regime’s purpose, to do something like this.”