Govt gets unwanted publicity as Wong deported to Hong Kong

06 ตุลาคม 2559

Yesterday's deportation of Hong Kong democracy campaigner Joshua Wong has given Thailand's military government more unwanted publicity, especially in the international media. Here is how AFP covered the story.

Yesterday's deportation of Hong Kong democracy campaigner Joshua Wong has given Thailand's military government more unwanted publicity, especially in the international media. Here is how AFP covered the story.

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Hong Kong activist deported from Thailand 'at China's request'

Hong Kong, Oct 5, 2016, AFP – Hong Kong democracy campaigner Joshua Wong returned home Wednesday after being deported from junta-run Thailand, where he was due at events commemorating a massacre of student activists, as he and his supporters blamed China for his detention.

The bespectacled Wong, 19, famed for his galvanising role in the city's 2014 pro-democracy "umbrella movement", was held upon arrival at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport.

"I think Beijing (was) the important factor or motivator for the Thai government to detain me at the airport," Wong told reporters at a press conference late Wednesday in Hong Kong.

He previously said he was stopped by more than 20 police and immigration officers after stepping off the plane in Bangkok at midnight local time and was asked to hand over his passport.

Wong said he was then forced to spend around 12 hours in an airport detention room.

"After they held and kept my passport and refused my request to contact my lawyer and my parents in Hong Kong, I felt hopeless scared and tired," Wong said, adding that Thai authorities told him he was "blacklisted".

Speculation swirled that Thailand's military government was acting under pressure from regional superpower China – a key ally who has lavished investment and diplomatic support on a junta lacking international friends following its 2014 coup.

Thai activists led by Netiwit Chotipatpaisal (right) hold a protest rally outside the Chinese Embassy yesterday under umbrellas symbolic of the Joshua Wong's pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong. PATIPAT JANTHONG

Thai student activist Netiwit Chotipatpaisal, who invited Wong to speak in Thailand, said police had told him of a "written letter from the Chinese government to the Thai government concerning this person".

An airport immigration official confirmed there had been an "order" to detain Wong but declined to say who issued it.

But junta spokesman Lieutenant General Sansern Kaewkamnerd said: "There had been no instruction or order given, pertaining to Mr Wong."

"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," the spokesman added.

Wong has been a perennial thorn in Beijing's side since emerging as an unlikely leader of protests against Chinese political domination of the city.

Last year he was similarly barred from entering Malaysia, where officials sent him back to Hong Kong citing fears his planned talks would damage ties with Beijing.

The Thai military has also busily suppressed its own student pro-democracy protests since its 2014 power grab.

But it would not be the first time the kingdom's junta has appeared to act under pressure from China.

"The Thai military government has kowtowed to China in the past, to Thailand's own ," said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a politics expert at Chulalongkorn University.

He cited Bangkok's deportation of more than 100 Uighurs who had fled China in 2015, a move that drew widespread condemnation from rights groups who say the Muslim minority are heavily repressed by Beijing.

Deporting Wong will "be counterproductive because it will attract global attention," Thitinan said, adding it will "send a signal that Thailand's space is not open".

UN Human Rights Office in Asia spokesman Jeremy Laurence said Wong's detention "raises further concerns about restrictions on peaceful freedom of expression and assembly in Thailand".