The deputy chair of the Conservative Party’s human rights commission has been barred from entering Hong Kong.© LightRocket via Getty Images The deputy chair of the Conservative Party’s human rights commission has been barred from entering Hong Kong. A leading British human rights activist who has been a vocal critic of China’s erosion of Hong Kong’s political freedoms has been barred from entering the former colony on the eve of a key political summit in Beijing.
Benedict Rogers, the deputy chair of the Conservatives’ human rights commission, flew into Hong Kong on Wednesday morning on a Thai Airways flight from Bangkok but said he was stopped at immigration and refused entry.
“They gave me no explanation at all,” he told the Guardian by phone as he prepared to fly back to Thailand on Wednesday afternoon.
He added: “It is absolutely bizarre ... I feel shocked. I had received a warning that this might happen so I was mentally prepared for it but was hoping it wouldn’t happen. I feel very shocked. I feel it is yet another example of if not the death then the death throes of ‘One country, two systems’”.
Rogers lived in Hong Kong for five years, from 1997 until 2002, and said he had been coming back on a private visit to see friends, including a number of prominent democracy activists.
“I wanted to come and meet people learn about the current situation.”
As he was escorted to his flight out of Hong Kong, Rogers said he turned to the immigration officer taking him to the plane and thanked him for treating him well.
“I said, ‘Does this mean one country, two systems is dead? Is it one country one system now?’”
“He looked at me actually very sadly, almost with tears in his eyes, and said, ‘I’m just doing my job, I can’t comment.’”
“I feel very sad for it. I feel sad for Hong Kong,” Rogers added. “If a private citizen from Britain who is coming basically to meet old friends and new friends ... is denied entry then it is a very sad day for Hong Kong.”
Rogers has been an outspoken critic of Beijing’s refusal to grant greater democracy to Hong Kong and its treatment of young activists such as umbrella movement leader Joshua Wong.
He was one of the organisers or a recent letter denouncing the “outrageously unjust” imprisonment of three of Hong Kong’s best-known pro-democracy activists, Wong, Nathan Law and Alex Chow.
At the time Beijing rejected the letter’s criticism.
“Hong Kong is ruled by law, and its citizens fully enjoy their own rights and freedoms. However, nobody can use the guise of ‘democracy and freedom’ to conduct illegal and violent activities [or] movements,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters.
Earlier this month Rogers met with a number of prominent Hong Kong activists in London, including Eddie Chu, Derek Lam and Raymond Chan.
“With courageous and intelligent people like these, working together and building unity among the democratic camp, Hong Kong has a bright future despite its recent setbacks. And I pledge to support them in their struggle,” he wrote on Facebook.
In a subsequent Facebook post Rogers added: “I have been criticised for being too outspoken for freedom, democracy and human rights. I have also been criticised for being too diplomatic. The reality is this: if you want freedom, democracy and human rights you have to fight for it.”