ZCZC
BFF-22
CHINA-HONGKONG-RIGHTS-DIPLOMACY-LEAD
China defends barring rights chief from Hong Kong
BEIJING, Jan 13, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – China on Monday defended barring the head
of Human Rights Watch from entering Hong Kong, saying non-governmental
organisations were responsible for political unrest in the semi-autonomous
city and should “pay the proper price”.
Kenneth Roth was supposed to give a press conference in Hong Kong this week
to unveil the New York-based rights group’s latest global survey, which
accuses China of prosecuting “an intensive attack” on international human
rights agencies.
The long-time executive director said Sunday that he was turned back by
authorities at the city’s airport.
China last month announced sanctions on American NGOs, including HRW, in
retaliation for the passage of a US bill backing Hong Kong’s pro-democracy
movement.
“Allowing or not allowing someone’s entry is China’s sovereign right,”
foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said at a regular press briefing.
“Plenty of facts and evidence show that the relevant NGO has through
various means supported anti-China radicals, encouraged them to engage in
extremist, violent and criminal activity, and incited Hong Kong independence
separatist activities,” Geng said.
“They bear major responsibility for the current chaos in Hong Kong. These
organisations should be punished, and should pay the proper price.”
Hong Kong has been battered by nearly seven months of occasionally violent
protests, its biggest political crisis in decades.
Millions have turned out on the streets of the semi-autonomous financial
hub to demand greater democratic freedoms.
– Not the first –
Roth joins a growing list of openly critical academics, researchers,
politicians and activists who have been refused entry in recent years.
Financial Times journalist Victor Mallet was denied a visa renewal without
reason in 2018 after he hosted a talk with the leader of a small and now
banned independence party at the city’s press club.
Last September, an American academic was barred from entering after he
testified in a Congressional hearing alongside prominent Hong Kong democracy
activists.
“I had hoped to spotlight Beijing’s deepening assault on international
efforts to uphold human rights,” Roth said. “The refusal to let me enter Hong
Kong vividly illustrates the problem.”
“Even though I’ve been able to freely enter Hong Kong before, this time,
for the first time, they blocked me,” he said in a video posted to Twitter.
The unrest that began last June is the biggest crisis the former British
colony has faced since its return to Chinese rule in 1997.
Under the terms of the handover, Hong Kong enjoys unique freedoms unseen on
the mainland, but in recent years fears have increased that these liberties
are being chipped away as Beijing exerts more control over the territory.
China and the Hong Kong administration have refused to cede to the
protesters’ demands, which include fully free elections in the city, an
inquiry into alleged police misconduct, and amnesty for the nearly 6,500
people arrested during the movement — nearly a third of them under the age
of 20.
BSS/AFP/RY/1542 hrs