Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Malaysia denies entry to Hong Kong student leader for 'anti-China' views

I found this article to be interesting as it talks about how Malaysia denies entry Hong Kong student (Joshua Wong) for having anti-China views (here).

Wong was the face of the "Umbrella Movement," which brought parts of Hong Kong to a standstill for more than two months late last year with mass rallies calling for fully free leadership elections.

Wong had been planning to give talks on democracy in China, from the massacre of pro-democracy protesters in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989 to Hong Kong's Umbrella Movement, according to the Scholarism student protest group he founded.

But Malaysia's Inspector-General of Police Abu Bakar Khalid said the purpose of Wong's visit was to explain how he had organized demonstrations in Hong Kong.

"We were afraid that what he was going to speak about would harm our security," he told Agence France-Presse.

"He was also going to speak about China. We know his anti-Chinese speeches. We do not want him to jeopardize our ties with China," Khalid said.

Khalid said Malaysian police had asked the immigration department to stop Wong entering the country.

"We do not need him in Malaysia as Wong is an undesirable element," he said.

I found it interesting and frighting that Malaysia  police find any individual that anti-China views to be threat to their business relationship with China. It makes it seem like China has a large influence on the country (i.e., Malaysia). Also, I wonder if the recent of Malaysia is pro-china as their police department and immigration department appears.

What are your thoughts?

2 comments:

  1. This is interesting! I don't think Malaysia has done anytime new because many countries including the U.S. are always denying some immigrants entry for the same purpose. Every country has the right to refuse anyone entry for any reasons. Also, I think that the young man, Wong,is being used by politicians with a hidden agenda.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is very interesting. I would not have expected a country that is not communist to deny access to immigrants just because of their views on another country (a trading partner in this case). I think that Malaysia could use the media to publicize Wong's case in order to strengthen politics with China.

    ReplyDelete