The student leader of the Occupy Central protests was detained for 12 hours and then sent back to Hong Kong. In Thailand set to commemorate 40 years since the massacre of students by Thai law enforcement. Fears for a government boycott. The young man is preparing a pre-recorded video, and a video-conference over the Internet.
Hong Kong (AsiaNews) - Joshua Wong Chi-fung, the pro-democracy activist from Occupy Central was expelled from Thailand "at the request of China." This was confirmed by Thai authorities. For its part, the government in Beijing claims to "respect the exercise of immigration control on the part of Thailand".
The young 19 year old, one of the protagonists of the sit-in in 2014 and the so-called umbrellas movement, had been invited by another student activist, Netiwit Chotipatpaisal, to speak at Chulalongkorn University on the occasion of the 40 years since the student massacre at the hands of the Thai security forces at the time.
Telling of his adventure to a radio in Hong Kong this morning, Wong said: "Whether I am a threat to public safety depends on the country, but when they told me that I was because I was wanted by another nation [China -ed], I was speechless".
The activist also questioned why a public security "black list" for Hong Kong is being used by another country.
Wong has assured that the event in Thailand will also go on without him and that he will participate in a video conference this evening. The Thai students have asked him to send a pre-recorded video "because they fear that the university's Internet connection will break" to boycott the meeting.
Wong said he was stopped by 20 policemen while he was on the bridge that connects the plane at Bangkok airport. After verifying his identity, they confiscated his passport and detained him in a cell for 12 hours.
The influence or fear of China is also felt in Macao. Yesterday three Hong Kong activists were turned back. These are Fred Lam-do, which was to make a conference at a former Portuguese colony school; Roddy Shaw Kwok-wah and director Lo Chun-yip. All three have received an expulsion order because "constituted a risk to the stability and internal security."