"Tiananmen dissidents locked entering Hong Kong | AboutHK.Com - more information about HK"
|  Hong Kong has blocked a student leader of the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests in the city, said advertisers election Wednesday, just days after another activist 1989 was surprisingly let in.
Xiang Xiaoji, one of the students, the negotiations with the Chinese government in 1989, was refused entry into Hong Kong airport and back to New York early Wednesday, the Alliance for the Promotion of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China said.
He had been in Hong Kong on a U.S. passport at the annual candlelight vigil to commemorate the 4th June military crackdown on the student-led protests in which hundreds, perhaps thousands were killed.
'It seems on the surface we can talk about June 4, but actually they have shut the door,' Cheung Man-kwong, a pro-democracy lawmaker in the southern Chinese city, told reporters.
The move was criticised by the United States.
'This decision is particularly regrettable in light of Hong Kong's well-known reputation as an open society that allows free and vigorous discussion and freedom of expression,' said US consulate spokesman Dale Kreisher.
Xiang had been allowed to enter Hong Kong in May 1999 ahead of the 10th anniversary of the crackdown, the South China Morning Post reported.
'It was a wrong decision to refuse my entry,' Xiang told the English-language daily, before his expulsion.
He praised Hong Kong's efforts to remember the six weeks of pro-democracy protests, which remain a taboo subject in mainland China.
'It is very impressive. Despite being a small place, Hong Kong is the beacon of democracy in China,' he told the Post.
On Saturday, Xiong Yan, a fellow protest leader and one of the 21 'most-wanted' Tiananmen Square student demonstrators after the crackdown, was allowed to enter Hong Kong, also travelling on a US passport.
Several other Tiananmen dissidents have been denied entry to Hong Kong in recent years. An immigration spokesman said he would not comment on individual cases.
On Saturday, a Danish sculptor, Jens Galschiot, was also refused entry to the city. His sculpture commemorating those who died in 1989, 'Pillar of Shame,' is displayed at Hong Kong University.
Hong Kong, which operates under a different legal and immigration system from the mainland, is the only place in China where the anniversary of the June 4 crackdown is marked openly.
Tens of thousands are expected to attend the candlelight vigil in Hong Kong on Thursday night. |
Comments