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| Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong detained in Thailand 'at China's request' - reports | Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong detained in Thailand 'at China's request' - reports |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Joshua Wong, the student activist who became a global symbol of the fight for democracy in Hong Kong, has reportedly been detained in Thailand following a request from China. | Joshua Wong, the student activist who became a global symbol of the fight for democracy in Hong Kong, has reportedly been detained in Thailand following a request from China. |
| Wong’s political party Demosistō posted on Facebook that he had travelled to Bangkok after being invited to speak about his campaign for democracy at Chulalongkorn University. | |
| However Netiwit Chotipatpaisal, the Thai student-activist who was due to meet Wong in Bangkok, notified the party that Wong has been detained at Suvarnabhumi Airport. | |
| “According to Chotipatpaisal, the Thai authorities have received a letter from the Chinese government earlier regarding Wong’s visit. His request to see Wong, who is still currently in custody, has also been declined.” | “According to Chotipatpaisal, the Thai authorities have received a letter from the Chinese government earlier regarding Wong’s visit. His request to see Wong, who is still currently in custody, has also been declined.” |
| “Demosistō strongly condemns the Thai government for unreasonably limiting Wong’s freedom and right to entry, and requests the immediate release of Wong,” it wrote. | “Demosistō strongly condemns the Thai government for unreasonably limiting Wong’s freedom and right to entry, and requests the immediate release of Wong,” it wrote. |
| Breaking! #Thailand Immigration detains #HongKong activist @joshuawongcf at Bangkok airport as Beijing requested. Deportation pending. pic.twitter.com/L8z0uXyTav | Breaking! #Thailand Immigration detains #HongKong activist @joshuawongcf at Bangkok airport as Beijing requested. Deportation pending. pic.twitter.com/L8z0uXyTav |
| “In the meantime, we request the Hong Kong Immigration Department’s assistance in assuring Wong’s safety.” | “In the meantime, we request the Hong Kong Immigration Department’s assistance in assuring Wong’s safety.” |
| Wong, 19, was due to address students at Chulalongkorn University at an event to mark the 40th anniversary of a massacre of students in 1976. | |
| He was expected to talk about his experiences during the 74-day umbrella protest in Hong Kong in 2014. | |
| Speaking to the South China Morning Post before his arrival, Netiwit said Wong would inspire young people to raise their voices in the military-ruled country. | |
| Wong’s detention appeared to be latest example of the growing proximity between Thailand’s military regime and China’s Communist rulers, who consider the student activist a subversive. Since the 2014 coup in Thailand, a series of incidents have underlined Beijing’s influence in the southeast Asian country.In October last year a Hong Kong publisher who specialised in salacious books about the Communist party elite vanished from his seafront apartment in the Thai resort town Pattaya, only to reappear in custody in mainland China where he is now being held. | |
| At around the same time, a Chinese journalist and campaigner called Li Xin fled China, hoping to claim political asylum in Thailand. However, he disappeared while traveling from Thailand to Laos. | |
| “I warned him to be very careful in Thailand. It is very dangerous here,” one Chinese exile living in Bangkok said at the time. A number of other Chinese dissidents and members of the Uighur ethinc minority from western China have also been deported back to China at the request of its government.Wong, as a citizen of Hong Kong, is likely to be deported back to the semi-autonomous city rather than mainland China where his brand of public activism would not be tolerated by the authoritarian regime. |