Taiwanese politics and culture commentator Chang Tieh-chih barred from entering Hong Kong
Former chief editor of Hong Kong’s City Magazine was turned away at airport on Wednesday
A prominent Taiwanese political critic and a senior officer at a semi-official cultural group headed by Taiwan’s president Tsai Ing-wen was refused entry to Hong Kong on Wednesday.
Chang Tieh-chih, also former chief editor of Hong Kong’s popular lifestyle and cultural monthly City Magazine, broke the news on Wednesday afternoon with a message on his Twitter account: “Finally, I was denied entry at the Hong Kong airport.”
But he wrote that his wife, Amy Cui, was allowed to enter. Cui is a Hong Kong resident. “I watched as my wife passed through,” he wrote on Twitter.
A source with knowledge of the matter said he was denied entry as his dependent visa had expired.
In a Facebook message posted on his return to Taiwan on Wednesday evening, Chang said he had plans to come to Hong Kong for a cultural exchange conference but was told his travel document had expired and that an online application for a landing visa was rejected.
He claimed he was used to using his Hong Kong identity card to visit Hong Kong but this time was told his card had expired. ““I tried to apply for a landing visa online at the Hong Kong airport but the application was rejected,” Chang wrote on Facebook page. “I thought I might have filled in some information improperly and I filled the form again but still [the application] was rejected.”