Thai Junta Says Hong Kong Activist Returned at China’s Wish

(Bloomberg) -- Thailand’s junta leader Prayuth Chan-Ocha said a Hong Kong democracy advocate was barred from entering the country and sent home at the Chinese government’s request.

Joshua Wong, a student leader during 2014 protests calling for greater democracy in Hong Kong, was detained late Tuesday upon his arrival at Bangkok’s main airport. He had been invited to speak at a university event marking the 40th anniversary of a deadly massacre of student protesters in the Thai capital.

“He already went back to China,” Prayuth told reporters Wednesday. “Officials there have requested to take him back. It’s Chinese officials’ business. Don’t get involved too much. They are all Chinese people no matter Hong Kong or mainland China.”

Thailand has been under military rule since Prayuth led a coup that toppled the elected government in May 2014, and broad restrictions on political expression and activities remain in place. Prayuth’s government has previously drawn international criticism for bowing to pressure from Beijing, including the deportation of more than 100 ethnic Uighurs to China, as well as two dissidents who were nearing asylum resettlement in third countries.

Illegal Confinement

Thailand also provided a backdrop in last year’s disappearance of five Hong Kong booksellers who sold books critical of China’s ruling Communist Party. Gui Minhai, who holds a Swedish passport, disappeared from the Southeast Asian nation in October and re-emerged in mainland China in January, saying in a televised confession on state-controlled television that he had turned himself into authorities.

Wong told reporters upon his return to Hong Kong Wednesday that he was grateful to be back in the city and viewed Thailand’s action as illegal confinement. He said he had been surrounded by about 20 Thai security personnel at the Bangkok airport and overheard that he was on some kind of blacklist.

During his 12-hour confinement, Wong worried whether he “would be the next Gui Minhai,” the activist said at a press conference.

Serious Concerns

Nathan Law, a newly elected Hong Kong lawmaker and a member of Wong’s Demosisto party, demanded an apology from the Thai government at the same briefing. “We are outraged,” he said.

Wong was barred from visiting Malaysia in May last year because his name appeared on a list of people barred from entering the country. The Southeast Asian nation’s police chief, Khalid Abu Bakar, told Agence France-Presse at the time that Malaysia was concerned Wong’s plan to speak about civil rights in China could jeopardize ties with the country.

Wong was aware there was a 70 percent chance he would be detained either leaving Hong Kong or on his arrival in Bangkok, according to Jason Y. Ng, author of “Umbrellas in Bloom: Hong Kong’s occupy movement uncovered.” “That’s what I told Joshua when we planned this trip," he said in a message. “For activists like Josh, there’s sort of a ‘no-fly list’ in the region."

The controversy coincided with an official visit to Thailand by Hong Kong Justice Secretary­Rimsky Yuen Kwok-keung, who earlier brushed off suggestions about Beijing’s involvement, saying that he didn’t believe such a matter would require international pressure.

‘Suppressing Conversations’

Amnesty International said Wong’s return to Hong Kong “raises serious concerns about how China is using its influence over Thai authorities.”

“Thailand’s borders should not be used as tools for suppressing conversations about democracy and other matters of national and global concern,” Champa Patel, the group’s senior research adviser for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, said in a statement.

China’s foreign ministry said it “respects Thailand’s exercise of immigration control in accordance with law,” according to the South China Morning Post.

Thai government spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd said in remarks released by the prime minister’s office that the junta, known formally as the National Council for Peace and Order, had a responsibility to maintain peace and keep political conflict from escalating.

“The NCPO was aware that Mr. Wong had been active in resistance movements against other foreign governments, and that if such actions were taken within Thailand, they could eventually affect Thailand’s relations with other nations,” Sansern said, according to the statement.

--With assistance from Jasmine Wang Ting Shi Natasha Khan and David Tweed To contact the reporters on this story: Chris Blake in Bangkok at cblake28@bloomberg.net, Suttinee Yuvejwattana in Bangkok at suttinee1@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Daniel Ten Kate at dtenkate@bloomberg.net, Brendan Scott, Darren Boey