Hong Kong has rejected a request from exiled Chinese dissident Wang Dan (王丹) to travel to the territory to attend the funeral of a veteran pro-democracy activist this week, Wang said yesterday.
Wang, a student leader in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, had pledged to attend the memorial for Hong Kong’s Szeto Wah (司徒華) in a personal capacity and said he had no political motive.
“It has been rejected,” he told a TV station in a telephone interview of his application. “No reason was given.”
“The Hong Kong government has given up the rights to self-rule,” Wang said in a statement posted on his Web site.
“This incident proves that the ‘one country, two systems’ is a lie,” he said. “One cannot rely on authorities to protect Hong Kong’s freedom and democracy.”
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Wang was imprisoned after the 1989 crackdown and was later exiled to the US, where he obtained a doctorate from Harvard University. He now lives in Taiwan.
He is persona non grata to Beijing’s leaders, who have repeatedly denied him permission to return home. He has also been repeatedly denied entry to Hong Kong.
Wang had earlier told reporters he saw no reason for the Hong Kong government to refuse his application other than pressure from Beijing’s Chinese Communist Party leaders.
“I am angry and upset that my visa was refused and this shows the Beijing government’s lack of confidence in itself,” Wang said in a telephone interview.
Szeto’s memorial service has become a rallying point for Chinese dissidents from the 1989 protests, including Wuer Kaixi (吾爾開希) who is also hoping to visit Hong Kong this week. The service this weekend is expected to draw thousands.
Wuer told reporters he had not heard about his application, but he thought the chances were not good now that Wang had been declined permission to visit. However, he said that he “still holds out hope to be able to pay last respects to Uncle Wah.”
Wang and Wuer have scheduled a news conference in Taipei for today.
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Suzanne Lee, a spokeswoman with the office of Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang (曾蔭權), declined to comment on the decision. The Immigration Department said in a statement that it would not comment on individual cases.
Democratic Party chairman and lawmaker Albert Ho (何俊仁) lashed out at the decision.
“We have every reason to believe this decision was not made by the Hong Kong government alone,” he told reporters. “It is regrettable that our chief executive has relinquished his powers to control our borders.”
Szeto, who died on Jan. 2 aged 79 after a battle with lung cancer, was a long-time thorn in the side of Beijing’s leaders and was a guiding spirit of the overseas pro-democracy movement agitating for democratic change and greater liberties in China.
The one-time Hong Kong legislator had helped many dissidents flee China after the bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Beijing, which saw hundreds, if not thousands, killed.
He was best known for founding the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China, which routinely criticized Beijing for human-rights abuses and pushed for political reforms in Hong Kong.
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