A Taiwanese academic scheduled to attend an international seminar in Hong Kong commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre was turned away by Hong Kong customs officials early on Friday, with the customs official claiming to have been informed by Beijing that the academic’s entry permit had been annulled.
Tseng Chien-yuan (曾建元), an associate professor of public administration at Chung Hua University and a board member of the New School for Democracy, said he boarded a late-night plane bound for Hong Kong on Thursday, planning to attend a seminar held by the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China.
“At customs [in Hong Kong], they said they needed to examine my files and later told me that there are problems with my entry permit. At about 3:30am it was confirmed that I could not enter the city,” Tseng said.
Photo: Taipei Times
Emphasizing that his entry permit, the Mainland Travel Permit for Taiwan Residents, will not expire until the end of this year and that he did not plan to go to the mainland, Tseng said he asked the customs officers for the reason he was denied entry, but received ambiguous answers.
“Customs said they did not know the reason, but only knew that the notification of my permit being revoked was from Beijing,” Tseng said.
“It was curious to hear from the Hong Kong official, when I asked whether I was blocked because of the sensitive timing of the visit [with June 4, the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, approaching], that the denial of entry was not necessarily associated with June 4, as, he told me, many people are also turned away in non-sensitive times [without justified reasons],” he said.
Tseng understood the remarks to imply that the Chinese government has started to tighten its grip on border control in Hong Kong, a city claimed by Beijing to be self-governing under the “one country, two systems” model.
Despite the Hong Kong official’s denial that the refusal of entry had anything to do with the bloody crushing of the 1989 student-led movement centered on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, Tseng said that his permit was not recalled physically nor stamped. He said he has no idea whether he has been blacklisted for good or denied entry only this time.
Tseng said he believes this incident has done great harm to the city’s image of operating under rule of law and democratically.
“The spirit of the so-called ‘one country, two systems’ principle has vanished completely,” he said.
The New School for Democracy, an NGO that hosts courses and forums on freedom and democracy, in a statement yesterday denounced the incident and urged the Hong Kong authorities to provide a reasonable justification and take compensating measures, “otherwise the city’s status as an international free port and a global financial center could be tarnished.”
“Beijing has long been violating international law by restricting blacklisted democracy advocates’ visits to Hong Kong, but [Tseng] might be the first Taiwanese citizen, with legal and effective traveling documents, to be denied entry,” the statement said.
It called on the Taiwanese government to protest the violation of its national’s civil rights and request an explanation from Hong Kong immediately, lest the case open the floodgates for future political intervention by Beijing in the civil interaction between Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Two students who participated in the Sunflower movement and who traveled with Tseng successfully crossed the border. They were invited to share their experiences at the student movement, Tseng said.
Hong Kong Secretary of Security Lai Tung-kwok (黎棟國) on Friday said he could not comment on individual cases, but that officers had to turn away those who did not meet “relevant requirements.”
Meanwhile, pro-democracy Hong Kong Legislator Lee Cheuk-yan (李卓人) said that Tseng’s rejection was a worrying extension of the bans already placed on former student leaders of the Tiananmen Square protests, such as Wang Dan (王丹) and Wuer Kaixi.
“But this time it’s more outrageous. Even a Taiwanese academic is not allowed in. It’s affecting Hong Kong’s international image,” Lee said.
Additional reporting by AP
Taipei has once again made it to the top 100 in Oxford Economics’ Global Cities Index 2025 report, moving up five places from last year to 60. The annual index, which was published last month, evaluated 1,000 of the most populated metropolises based on five indices — economics, human capital, quality of life, environment and governance. New York maintained its top spot this year, placing first in the economics index thanks to the strength of its vibrant financial industry and economic stability. Taipei ranked 263rd in economics, 44th in human capital, 15th in quality of life, 284th for environment and 75th in governance,
Greenpeace yesterday said that it is to appeal a decision last month by the Taipei High Administrative Court to dismiss its 2021 lawsuit against the Ministry of Economic Affairs over “loose” regulations governing major corporate electricity consumers. The climate-related lawsuit — the first of its kind in Taiwan — sought to require the government to enforce higher green energy thresholds on major corporations to reduce emissions in light of climate change and an uptick in extreme weather. The suit, filed by Greenpeace East Asia, the Environmental Jurists Association and four individual plaintiffs, was dismissed on May 8 following four years of litigation. The
A former officer in China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) who witnessed the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre has warned that Taiwan could face a similar fate if China attempts to unify the country by force. Li Xiaoming (李曉明), who was deployed to Beijing as a junior officer during the crackdown, said Taiwanese people should study the massacre carefully, because it offers a glimpse of what Beijing is willing to do to suppress dissent. “What happened in Tiananmen Square could happen in Taiwan too,” Li told CNA in a May 22 interview, ahead of the massacre’s 36th anniversary. “If Taiwanese students or
The New Taipei City Government would assist relatives of those killed or injured in last month’s car-ramming incident in Sansia District (三峽) to secure compensation, Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said yesterday, two days after the driver died in a hospital. “The city government will do its best to help the relatives of the car crash incident seek compensation,” Hou said. The mayor also said that the city’s Legal Affairs, Education and Social Welfare departments have established a joint mechanism to “provide coordinated assistance” to victims and their families. Three people were killed and 12 injured when a car plowed into schoolchildren and their
RSS