HONG KONG • A string of figures critical of China’s Communist Party say they have been denied visas to Hong Kong, sparking accusations of a secret «blacklist» that bears signs of Beijing’s growing influence over the city..
HONG KONG • A string of figures critical of China’s Communist Party say they have been denied visas to Hong Kong, sparking accusations of a secret «blacklist» that bears signs of Beijing’s growing influence over the city.
Taiwanese scholars Wu Rwei-ren and Wu Jieh-min of Taipei’s prestigious Academia Sinica, due to speak at a conference in Hong Kong today, are the latest to say their visa applications had been rejected without explanation.
Their cases followed a high-profile incident in October when British activist Benedict Rogers, deputy chairman of the governing Conservative Party’s human rights commission, was turned away by immigration after landing for what he said was a private trip.
Mr Rogers has previously criticised the jailing of democracy campaigners in Hong Kong, calling it «one of the most grotesque miscarriages of justice I have seen».
Semi-autonomous Hong Kong enjoys freedoms unseen on the mainland since being handed back to China by Britain in 1997 under a «one country, two systems» deal. But there are rising concerns that those liberties are under threat.
The city’s mini-Constitution, the Basic Law, stipulates immigration affairs are managed internally, but analysts say decisions over who is allowed in are increasingly arbitrary and non-transparent, sparking concern that immigration is becoming a political battleground.
