Beijing runs Hong Kong’s foreign affairs, says Carrie Lam, after British politician barred from city

Chief executive says city’s high degree of autonomy does not apply in all respects, adding that British commentators ‘very unfair to Hong Kong’

Reading Time:2 minutes

Chief Executive Carrie Lam said British commentators had been ‘very unfair to Hong Kong’. Photo: Felix Wong

Published: 12:15pm, 12 Oct 2017Updated: 8:04pm, 12 Oct 2017

Beijing runs Hong Kong’s foreign affairs and the Basic Law does not give the city a high degree of autonomy in every respect, the city’s leader said on Thursday, after a British human rights campaigner was turned back at immigration.

But Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor would not say whether mainland officials were behind the decision.

Lam spoke after Benedict Rogers was barred from Hong Kong on Wednesday without explanation. Immigration Department officers at the airport put Rogers, deputy chairman of the UK Conservative Party’s human rights commission, on a plane back to Thailand, where he had just come from.

UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said the government would seek an “urgent explanation” from the Hong Kong and mainland governments about what happened, and said Hong Kong’s rights and freedoms should be “fully respected”.

Hong Kong admonishes US panel for calling future of ‘one country, two systems’ increasingly uncertain

On Thursday, Lam said she could not reveal why Rogers was denied entry. But governments everywhere have discretion over who is allowed in and who is not, she said.

Select Voice

Choose your listening speed

Get through articles 2x faster

1.25x

250 WPM

Slow

Average

Fast

00:0000:00

1.25x