Hong Kong police offered HK$1 million ($128,000) in rewards for information on five dissidents living overseas, stepping up its controversial use of bounties to chase pro-democracy activists in the name of national security.

“All of them, who have already fled overseas, have continued to commit offenses under the national security law that seriously endanger national security,” Li Kwai-wah, chief superintendent of the police’s national security department, said in a briefing Thursday.