HONG KONG: A British activist critical of Hong Kong’s rights record was barred entry to the former British colony on Wednesday, prompting a demand from London for an explanation, a week before a Communist Party leadership meeting starts in Beijing. Benedict Rogers, a co…
HONG KONG: A British activist critical of Hong Kong’s rights record was barred entry to the former British colony on Wednesday, prompting a demand from London for an explanation, a week before a Communist Party leadership meeting starts in Beijing.
Benedict Rogers, a co-founder of the Conservative Party’s Human Rights Commission, has been a vocal critic of Chinese-ruled Hong Kong’s treatment of human rights activists, including that of jailed student protest leader Joshua Wong.
After arriving from Bangkok on Wednesday, Rogers said immigration officials who were “perfectly friendly and polite” took him into a room and briefly asked him non-sensitive questions.
They denied him entry about an hour later without giving a reason, Rogers told Reuters over the phone. He was then escorted on to the next flight to Bangkok by half a dozen officials.
Hong Kong, which returned to Chinese rule in 1997, is governed under a “one country, two systems” principle that promises it a high degree of autonomy and freedoms not enjoyed on the mainland.
But critics have accused the government of bending to the will of Communist Party leaders in Beijing and of a gradual watering down of the territory’s freedoms, including freedom of speech and right to protest.
The Immigration Department said in a statement it does not comment on individual cases, adding it decides whether entry will be allowed “in accordance with the Hong Kong law and prevailing immigration policies”.
