A top Chinese official yesterday defended his government's decision to bar a Hong Kong pro-democracy lawmaker from entering the mainland, saying customs authorities acted legally.
Officials who turned away Legislator Law Chi-kwong at the Shanghai airport on Saturday "made a decision according to the relevant provisions of immigration law," said Li Gang, deputy head of China's liaison office in Hong Kong.
Law said he was told his presence "would not be beneficial for the country."
China traditionally considers Hong Kong's pro-democracy leaders troublemakers because of their harsh criticism of Beijing's authoritarian rule in the mainland.
But Law being denied entry marks a surprise departure from China's recent string of conciliatory gestures toward opposition figures, a strategy apparently aimed at minimizing a backlash against Beijing's local allies in the Sept. 12 legislative election.
Many people in Hong Kong are upset that Beijing ruled in April that the territory can't directly elect its next leader in 2007 and lawmakers in 2008.
The ruling prompted hundreds of thousands to protest on July 1, the seventh anniversary of this former British colony's handover to Chinese rule.
Adding to the confusion, Law claims he was told by China's liaison office here that he had been cleared to visit the mainland.
Political scientist James Sung at the City University of Hong Kong said Law may have been denied entry by mistake because Shanghai authorities weren't promptly notified to let him in.
But fellow scholar Ma Ngok said the mixed signals showed China still has reservations about Hong Kong's pro-democracy camp.
"The basis for communication is very fragile," said Ma, who teaches at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
Hong Kong enjoys Western-style freedoms denied in the mainland under Chinese sovereignty, but only limited democracy.
DOUBLE-MURDER CASE: The officer told the dispatcher he would check the locations of the callers, but instead headed to a pizzeria, remaining there for about an hour A New Jersey officer has been charged with misconduct after prosecutors said he did not quickly respond to and properly investigate reports of a shooting that turned out to be a double murder, instead allegedly stopping at an ATM and pizzeria. Franklin Township Police Sergeant Kevin Bollaro was the on-duty officer on the evening of Aug. 1, when police received 911 calls reporting gunshots and screaming in Pittstown, about 96km from Manhattan in central New Jersey, Hunterdon County Prosecutor Renee Robeson’s office said. However, rather than responding immediately, prosecutors said GPS data and surveillance video showed Bollaro drove about 3km
Tens of thousands of people on Saturday took to the streets of Spain’s eastern city of Valencia to mark the first anniversary of floods that killed 229 people and to denounce the handling of the disaster. Demonstrators, many carrying photos of the victims, called on regional government head Carlos Mazon to resign over what they said was the slow response to one of Europe’s deadliest natural disasters in decades. “People are still really angry,” said Rosa Cerros, a 42-year-old government worker who took part with her husband and two young daughters. “Why weren’t people evacuated? Its incomprehensible,” she said. Mazon’s
‘MOTHER’ OF THAILAND: In her glamorous heyday in the 1960s, former Thai queen Sirikit mingled with US presidents and superstars such as Elvis Presley The year-long funeral ceremony of former Thai queen Sirikit started yesterday, with grieving royalists set to salute the procession bringing her body to lie in state at Bangkok’s Grand Palace. Members of the royal family are venerated in Thailand, treated by many as semi-divine figures, and lavished with glowing media coverage and gold-adorned portraits hanging in public spaces and private homes nationwide. Sirikit, the mother of Thai King Vajiralongkorn and widow of the nation’s longest-reigning monarch, died late on Friday at the age of 93. Black-and-white tributes to the royal matriarch are being beamed onto towering digital advertizing billboards, on
POWER ABUSE WORRY: Some people warned that the broad language of the treaty could lead to overreach by authorities and enable the repression of government critics Countries signed their first UN treaty targeting cybercrime in Hanoi yesterday, despite opposition from an unlikely band of tech companies and rights groups warning of expanded state surveillance. The new global legal framework aims to bolster international cooperation to fight digital crimes, from child pornography to transnational cyberscams and money laundering. More than 60 countries signed the declaration, which means it would go into force once ratified by those states. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the signing as an “important milestone,” and that it was “only the beginning.” “Every day, sophisticated scams destroy families, steal migrants and drain billions of dollars from our economy...
RSS