{"id":67520,"date":"2016-10-05T14:55:00","date_gmt":"2016-10-05T14:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/127.0.0.1:10081\/?p=67520 "},"modified":"2016-10-05T14:55:00","modified_gmt":"2016-10-05T14:55:00","slug":"67520-revision-v1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/?p=67520","title":{"rendered":"Hong Kong Student Leader Detained, Denied Entry to Thailand"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">2016-10-05<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p><div>&nbsp;<\/div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/mzzg.org\/UploadCenter\/ArticlePics\/2016\/39\/20161056cafbf23-5398-40a9-b7b0-f7899055be0d.jpeg\" alt=\"20161056cafbf23-5398-40a9-b7b0-f7899055be0d.jpeg (622&#215;414)\" \/><br \/><div>&nbsp;<\/div>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Hong Kong democracy campaigner Joshua Wong (C) speaks to the media upon his arrival at the international airport in Hong Kong, after being deported from junta-run Thailand, Oct. 5, 2016.<\/span><\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&nbsp;AFP<\/span><\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">UPDATED at 10:50 EDT on 2016-10-05<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">A former student leader of Hong Kong&#8217;s 2014 pro-democracy movement has been denied entry to Thailand, in a move by the Bangkok military junta that is widely believed to be at the request of Beijing.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Joshua Wong, 19, who has since co-founded the pro-democracy party Demosisto, was detained on arrival at Bangkok&#8217;s international airport en route to speak at two universities about the Occupy Central movement.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">He was denied entry and escorted onto a plane back to Hong Kong, he told reporters on arrival after writing that he was &#8220;illegally detained&#8221; on his Facebook page.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&#8220;Chulalongkorn University in Thailand invited me &#8230; originally I should have given a speech [there],&#8221; Wong said after arriving at Hong Kong&#8217;s International Airport.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&#8220;Yesterday, around 1.00 a.m. Hong Kong time, I arrived at Bangkok airport, and the immigration department and police &#8230; maybe 20 &#8230; came and held my passport immediately,&#8221; he said.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&#8220;They sent me into one of the police stations at Bangkok airport, and they forced me to stay inside the police station, to stay imprisoned for totally 12 hours,&#8221; he said.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Immigration officers had refused to give any explanation for Wong&#8217;s detention, saying only that he had been &#8220;blacklisted,&#8221; he said.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Wong said he had been denied permission to contact a lawyer, and to inform his family of his safe arrival.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">He said he was &#8220;totally disappointed&#8221; with the experience.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&#8220;It was totally out of my expectations to have this kind of suppression from the Thai government,&#8221; he said.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">China<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"> requested &#8216;cooperation&#8217;<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Wong&#8217;s invitation came from Chulalongkorn University&#8217;s Faculty of Political Science, who asked him to address students on the 40th anniversary of a bloody crackdown by the Thai army on student protesters.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Thailand<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&#8216;s The Nation newspaper quoted a senior immigration police officer as saying that the move came after a request for &#8220;cooperation&#8221; on the matter from the Chinese government.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&#8220;The [Thai] Immigration Bureau blacklisted him and held him for deportation,&#8221; the paper quoted Col. Pruthipong Prayoonsiri as saying.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&#8220;When officers informed him, Joshua Wong did not oppose it,&#8221; Pruthipong said.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Dozens of politicians and activists demonstrated outside the Thai consulate in Hong Kong on Wednesday in protest at Wong&#8217;s treatment, but were prevented from entering the building to speak to consular officials.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Pan-democratic lawmaker and veteran social activist Leung Kwok-hung said many are angry at the Hong  Kong government for apparently failing to intervene to help Wong.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&#8220;Did they even speak to the Thai government about this?&#8221; Leung said. &#8220;Can&#8217;t they even cope with the Thai government?&#8221;<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Former Occupy Central leader Nathan Law, who was recently elected to the Legislative Council (LegCo) for Demosisto, said that around 30 LegCo members had issued a statement protesting Wong&#8217;s detention.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&#8220;Joshua Wong didn&#8217;t break any Thai laws; he was detained by the Thai government for no reason after being invited to take part in a university exchange event,&#8221; Law told journalists.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&#8220;He was also denied any contact with the outside world.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Political factors<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">He hit out at the Thai government&#8217;s treatment of a Hong Kong resident with a valid tourist visa.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Hong Kong<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"> secretary for security Rimsky Yuen, however, said countries have the right to regulate their own borders, &#8220;according to actual circumstances or for various reasons.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">He said he didn&#8217;t believe that Wong&#8217;s denial of entry was linked to state-to-state pressure, but was linked to the Thai government&#8217;s own &#8220;management&#8221; of people entering the country on tourist visas.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Richard Choi, deputy chairman of the Alliance in Support of the Patriotic Democratic Movement in China, disagreed, however.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&#8220;Joshua Wong had legitimate and lawful reasons to travel to Thailand,&#8221; Choi told RFA.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&#8220;Given that the Thai government had no good reason &#8230; to refuse him entry &#8230; it looks as if political factors were involved in this situation,&#8221; he said.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&#8220;All countries have the right to prevent anyone from crossing their borders, but that doesn&#8217;t make it right,&#8221; Choi added.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Maya Wang, China researcher for the New York-based Human Rights Watch, also said Wong&#8217;s detention was the result of political factors.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&#8220;A number of unrelated incidents have shown us that the Thai government is increasingly willing to do the Chinese government&#8217;s dirty work for it, by repatriating [Chinese] rights activists there, and by denying entry to other rights activists,&#8221; Wang said.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&#8220;It is a cause for concern that they are increasingly under Beijing&#8217;s influence and pressure,&#8221; she said.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Thailand<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&#8216;s repatriation history<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Thailand has responded to a number of requests from Beijing to repatriate rights activists and dissidents, some of whom had already been granted political refugee status by the United Nations and were awaiting resettlement in a third country.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">China<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"> on Wednesday declined to clarify its role in Wong&#8217;s detention, with a foreign ministry official saying only that the ministry had &#8220;taken note of the relevant reports,&#8221; Reuters reported.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Wong became the student icon of the 79-day civil disobedience campaign for fully democratic elections in Hong Kong, a movement which rejected Beijing&#8217;s insistence that any move to universal suffrage in the city must include the vetting of candidates by its supporters.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Crowds of protesters occupied the city&#8217;s streets in protest at the plan, using umbrellas to protect themselves from sun, rain, and pepper spray, and giving the Umbrella Movement its nickname.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">But the movement ended with no political victory, and amid accusations from the ruling Chinese Communist Party that the protests were being orchestrated by &#8220;hostile foreign forces&#8221; behind the scenes.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">In August, a Hong Kong district court sentenced Wong to 80 hours of community service on a charge of unlawful assembly.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">The Hong Kong government later requested a jail sentence for Wong and two fellow activists.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Reported by Lee Lai for RFA&#8217;s Cantonese Service, and by Yang Fan for the Mandarin Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><br \/><\/p>  <p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rfa.org\/english\/news\/china\/thailand-wong-10052016073319.html\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">For detail please visit here<\/span><\/a><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-asia-china-37558908\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">BBC: Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong barred from entering Thailand<\/span><\/a><\/p>  <p><br \/><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.voanews.com\/a\/hong-kong-democracy-activist-detained-at-thailand-airport\/3537477.html\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">VOA:Hong Kong Democracy Activist Detained at Thailand Airport<\/span><\/a><\/p>  <p><br \/><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&lt;div&gt;Joshua Wong, 19, who has since co-founded the pro-democracy party Demosisto, was detained on arrival at Bangkok&#39;s international airport en route to speak at two universities about the Occupy Central movement.&lt;\/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;\/div&gt;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ChinaHumanRights","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=67520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67520\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=67520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=67520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=67520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}