Exiled Hong Kong activist Ted Hui handed bankruptcy order

The 41-year-old veteran activist Hui announced in December 2020 that he had gone into exile following Beijing's crackdown on dissent in Hong Kong, which saw the imposition of a sweeping national security law months prior.

Hui is among several overseas activists targeted last year by police bounties of HK$1 million ($128,000) each.

Authorities at the time accused them of "very serious offences that endanger national security".

At a brief hearing Tuesday, a Hong Kong High Court judge made a bankruptcy order against Hui.

Legal documents "have been validly served on the debtor. The debtor has never responded," High Court Judge Kent Yee said.

The activist was not represented in court.

Hui criticised the bankruptcy order as "silly" and said it did not affect his present finances.

"Political repression starts with a made-up debt, then the draconian national security law is used to freeze bank accounts, leading to a bankruptcy order as a political effect," Hui wrote on social media.

Hui was a high-profile participant in the huge and sometimes violent democracy protests that swept the Chinese finance hub in 2019.

After fleeing Hong Kong, the activist has resettled in Australia and remains a vocal critic of Hong Kong and Beijing authorities.

In 2022, Hui was sentenced to jail in absentia for misleading authorities into letting him leave Hong Kong.

Hui is also wanted by Hong Kong authorities for urging voters to cast blank ballots in the 2021 legislative race after Beijing revamped the electoral system.

Two years ago he criticised HSBC for "unreasonably (freezing) my accounts" after the banking giant complied with a Hong Kong police request.

Separately, police confirmed in a Tuesday press conference that activist Agnes Chow was officially deemed a wanted person after she missed a reporting deadline.

Chow announced last year that she fled to Canada "considering the situation in Hong Kong, my personal safety, my physical and mental health".