Three US-based dissidents involved in 1989 pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square have been denied visas to attend a Hong Kong conference about China’s military crackdown on the demonstrations, an organizer said yesterday.
The Tiananmen crackdown, which killed at least hundreds of people, remains a taboo in China, where the government still considers the student protests a “counterrevolutionary” riot. Beijing has never given a full accounting of the military action.
Wang Dan (王丹) and Wang Juntao (王軍濤) were denied visas when they applied at Chinese consular offices, Hong Kong political scientist Joseph Cheng (鄭宇碩) said in a phone interview. A third, Yang Jianli (楊建利), was denied entry when he arrived at Hong Kong airport three weeks ago, Cheng said.
PHOTO: AP
A fourth dissident, Beijing-based Chen Ziming (陳子明), also said he was unable to attend the conference but it wasn’t clear why, Cheng said.
Wang Dan, one of the student leaders of the 1989 protests, was jailed after the crackdown and went into exile in the US in 1998. He is now teaching in Taiwan.
Wang Juntao and Chen were founders of a private think tank on social issues and advised students during the protests.
PHOTO: AP
Both intellectuals were sentenced to 13 years in jail and freed on medical parole in 1993. Chen was rearrested in 1995 and released in 1996.
Yang, a US permanent resident, also took part in the protests and later served a five-year jail term in China on charges of spying for Taiwan and entering China illegally.
Wang Dan and Yang had previously been denied permission to visit Hong Kong, although Chen was allowed to visit in April 2007 for research.
PHOTO: AP
Wang Dan said last year Chinese officials have refused to renew his Chinese passport, which expired in 2003, and has been traveling on travel documents issued by the US government.
Cheng said he had invited the four dissidents to attend a panel discussion on the Tiananmen protests as part of an academic conference scheduled to be held at the City University of Hong Kong next Tuesday and Wednesday, just ahead of the 20th anniversary of the military crackdown on Thursday.
The Chinese foreign ministry didn’t immediately return a reporter’s call seeking comment on the visa denials. Calls and e-mails to the dissidents weren’t immediately answered.
Hong Kong’s Immigration Department said in statement it won’t comment on Yang’s case.
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
ONLINE VITRIOL: While Mo Yan faces a lawsuit, bottled water company Nongfu Spring and Tsinghua University are being attacked amid a rise in nationalist fervor At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common, but in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valor in cyberspace. Last month, a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan (莫言), accusing him of discrediting the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China. Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo,” is seeking
‘SURPRISES’: The militants claim to have successfully tested a missile capable of reaching Mach 8 and vowed to strike ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported on Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official, but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the