BACKGROUND
1. Mr Corbyn concerns himself with human rights issues
mainly in Latin America and the Middle East. He has tabled
40 such questions this session. This is his first on Hong
Kong.
2.
The Chinese Conference of Students Federation, was due
to take place 14-20 July. A formal protest about this
conference was lodged by the New China News agency. A
number of overseas Chinese students were due to take part in
discussions on the democracy movement in China, but were
prevented from entering Hong Kong by the Hong Kong Government. This is consistent with the Hong Kong
Government's (publicly stated) policy of not allowing
Hong Kong "to be used as a battlefield for other people's
political battles". The Hong Kong Government, however,
staunchly defends the rights of Hong Kong residents to air
their views, within the law.
4. In the event the conference did not take place but the
students had a telephonic version with students in Taiwan
and those being detained at Kai Tak Airport.
14 people arriving to attend the conference have been denied entry since 12 July: 15 were denied entry in total.
5.
6.
The Hong Kong Government received a total of ten letters
complaining about this including one from Mrs Nancy Pelosi.
Otherwise the only "representations" the Hong Kong
Government received were a small scale demonstration and a
request for an explanation of the Hong Kong Government's
action from the students. Some students handed in a
petition to our Paris Embassy and Washington received a letter from an interested group.
SALABZ
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