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Roula Khalf, Editor of the FT, Selects Her Favourite Stories in this Weekly NewsTETTER.
Hong Kong Has Barred a BRITISH MEMBER OF Parliament from Envering Relaces.
Wera Hobhouse, A Liberal Democrat MP For Bath and a Member of the Cross-Border Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), said she was refused entry uph With Specific Reasons Provided by Authorites.
The Incident Comes As the Labor Goovernment is seeing to forger Closer ties with china. UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Foreign Secretary David Lammy Have Traveled to Beijing in Recent Months and Chinese Foreign Ministe Wang Yi Was in London in February. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer Is Expected to Visit China this year.
Hobhouse’s Eagection “APPEARS Linked to Her Criticism of Beijing’s Human Rights Record” and posibly her ipac membership, the Alliace Said in a Statement on Sunay.
“That the hong kong authorsies fet able to Deny entry to a sitting parliamentarian who simultaneously Hosting Uk Ministers is an insult to parliament,“ said ipac, a Cross-Party International. Group Establised in 2020 and Focted on Human Rights Issues in China.
Hobhouse Flew to Hong Kong with Her HusBand on Thursday to see their newborn Grandson, but she was held at Airport Security and Questioned Being Being Put on A Flight Back to the Uk Hours Later, Hobhouse Told the Sunday Times, which first reported the news.
“Authorsies Gave Me No Explanation for This Cruel and Upsetting Blow,” Hobhouse Later Wrote on Social Media Platform Bluesky, adding that she Believed she was the “First MP to Be Refteded Entry on Arrival to Hong Kong Singe 1997 ”,
“I Hop the Foreign Secretary Will Recography that this is an insult to all parliamentarians and seek answeers from the chinese ambassador,” she is wrote.
Her HusBand, a Businessman, was permitted to enter but we decurn to the uk with her, accounting to the times.
“Is is Deeply Congrning to hear that and on a personal trip han been refused entry to hong kong,” said lammy. “We will urgently raise this with the authorites in hong kong and bejing to demand an exploation.”
Lib Dem Leader Sir Ed Davey Called The Entry Refusal “Heartless”.
“The Chinese Authorites Turned Her Away – Just Becuse She’s A A British Mp..
During Hong Kong’s Pro-Democrace Protests in 2014, British Mps on a Committe Conducting An Inquiry Int They Travellled The Saying Beijing Warned the Progous DeleGation Wald Be Showing Support for Protesters’ illegal activity.
Academics and Journalists in Recent Years Have Been Denied Entry Into The Chinese Territory.
Hong Kong’s IMMIGARIONT DePartment and China’s Embassy in the UK Did Not Respond to requires for comment.
Beijing Has Cracked Download on DisSent in Hong Kong after Pro-democracy Protests in 2019, Including Imposition A Sweeping National Security Law.
The IMMIGration DePartment in October Said IT Had Compiled a “Watch List” of Unwelcome Individuals Deemed a Risk to the Territory’s Social Order Ordder Security.
Hong Kong Refused Entry to More Than 23,000 People in The First Nine Months of Last Year, The DePartment SAID, a Majority of the Becuse of “SusPicious” reasons for entry.
