Chief Executive Carrie Lam has refused to rule out that Hong Kong’s last colonial governor Chris Patten could potentially be barred from entering the city, after a British human rights activist was turned away by immigration this week.
Lam was speaking on a RTHK radio program today in the wake of the decision on Wednesday to block Benedict Rogers, the deputy chair of the UK Conservative Party’s human rights commission and a former Hong Kong resident, from entering the country.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman yesterday made clear it the central government was behind the move, saying Beijing had the right to bar anyone it likes from Hong Kong.
Lam today sought to clarify that while Hong Kong retained control over immigration matters, that purview ended where foreign affairs are concerned.
“Under the Basic Law, one country, two systems, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region has a high-degree of autonomy. We have our own immigration policies, customs and so on,” she said, according to her quotes on RTHK.
“But when it comes to foreign affairs, then it is a matter for the Central People’s Government.”
She was pushed on whether Patten, who has voiced concern about the erosion of Hong Kong’s freedoms by the central government, might also be barred like Rogers.
“I can’t exclude any possibility, because immigration matters will change depending on the case,” she responded.
Patten, the British colonial governor when Hong Kong returned to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, said in June that Beijing had a “steadily tightening grip” on the semi-autonomous city, whose freedoms are supposed to be guaranteed under the “one country, two systems” for 50 years under the handover agreement.
Following Wednesday’s rejection, Rogers, who has been a staunch supporter of Hong Kong pro-democracy activists jailed over their roles in the 2014 Occupy Central movement, vowed to spearhead an NGO to monitor the city’s progress on human rights, democracy and freedoms, the SCMP reported.
