Three student leaders of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong have been prevented from flying to Beijing to take their demands to the Chinese government. Authorities gave no explanation for the incident.
Three students who have been leading pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong were stopped on Saturday from boarding a flight to Beijing, where they had hoped to present their reform demands to the Chinese government after talks with Hong Kong officials failed.
The leaders of the Hong Kong Federation of Students (HKFS) said Cathy Pacific airline officials had informed them that their permits for travel on the Chinese mainland had been canceled by Chinese authorities.
"Cathay has confirmed that their [the students'] return home card has been canceled by the mainland authorities, so they could not get the required certificates to get on to the plane," an HKFS representative told reporters.
A Cathy Pacific spokesman confirmed to local media that the students' travel permits had been declared invalid by mainland authorities, but gave no further details.
China has refused entry before to activists who voice opinions critical of Beijing.
A group of some 300 supporters of the protests had gathered to farewell the students before the flight was canceled (pictured above).
Long-running protests
Protesters have been occupying key areas of Hong Kong for more than six weeks, calling for free elections in 2017 to choose a new leader for the former British colony.
China, which took back Hong Kong from Britain in 1997 under a "one country, two systems" agreement thataccorded the city a high degree of autonomy, said in August that candidates for the election would have to be vetted by a committee widely seen as pro-Beijing.
China and the Hong Kong government have declared the protests to be illegal. At their height, the demonstrations drew well over 100,000 people, but the number has since sunk to just hundreds.
Local media have reported that authorities are planning to move in to clear key protest sites in the city as early as Monday.
Police in Hong Kong have sometimes employed tear gas to disperse protesters over the past weeks, and there have been a number of violent clashes.
tj/glb (Reuters, AFP)
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