Hong Kong authorities announced cash rewards on Friday for information leading to the arrest of 19 overseas activists involved in Hong Kong Parliament -- a pro-democracy group established in Canada.

The bounties range from about US$25,000 (HK$200,000) to US$125,000, depending on the individual.

Among those named was Feng Chongyi, a China studies professor at the University of Technology Sydney.

"It's certainly ridiculous," Feng told the Sydney Morning Herald in an interview published Saturday.

"They've got the power, they've got the influence overseas, they want to control everything even overseas."

Feng told the publication he joined the group as an academic.

"I feel very sad, I'm extremely upset that the autonomous Hong Kong has been destroyed," he added. "It's unbearable for me."

"Hong Kong was such a beautiful, dynamic place -- the best part of Chinese culture, the combination of the East and the West."

- Western criticism -

The former British colony -- handed back to China in 1997 -- has seen political dissent quashed since Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law in 2020 following huge and at times violent pro-democracy protests.

Feng, who has conducted research into China's pro-democracy groups, was detained for a week in China in 2017.

At the time, his lawyer said he was "suspected of harming national security and could not leave China".

Friday's announcement of bounties was the fourth from Hong Kong authorities, which has previously drawn strong criticism from Western countries.

The bounties are seen as largely symbolic given that they affect people living abroad in nations unlikely to extradite political activists to Hong Kong or China.

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Saturday she strongly objected to the arrest warrants.

"Freedom of expression and assembly are essential to our democracy," she said on social media platform X.

"We have consistently expressed our strong objections to China and Hong Kong on the broad and extraterritorial application of Hong Kong's national security legislation, and we will continue to do so."

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio also slammed Hong Kong's bounties for the overseas activists, which he said included "US-based individuals".

"We will not tolerate the Hong Kong government's attempts to apply its national security laws to silence or intimidate Americans or anyone on US soil," Rubio said in a statement.

The UK condemned the move as "another example of transnational repression", according to a statement from British Foreign Secretary David Lammy and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper.

The Hong Kong government hit back Saturday, calling Britain's reaction "untrue and biased".

"Those absconders hiding in the UK and other Western countries are wanted because they continue to blatantly engage in activities endangering national security," it said, demanding that Britain "stop interfering in Hong Kong matters which are purely China's internal affairs".