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Tung too busy for visa row

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Tung Chee-hwa has declined to meet legislator Margaret Ng Ngoi-yee for at least three weeks to discuss the revoking of her mainland visa.

The disclosure came a day after Chief Secretary for Administration Anson Chan Fang On-sang said Mr Tung would pursue the case 'at the first opportunity' on his return from the Apec conference in New Zealand. Mr Tung returned late on Tuesday night.

Ms Ng, who was barred from boarding a Dragonair flight to Beijing on Sunday to attend a legal seminar, said she had been unable to contact Mr Tung or his private secretary. But his private secretary's secretary had told her the Chief Executive would not be available before the Policy Address on October 6.

'We have been told he is too tired and too busy to see me,' she said.

Ms Ng, who represents the legal profession in the legislature, wants Mr Tung to protest to Beijing and find out why she was refused entry. She was the latest in a long line of pro-democracy legislators to be barred from entry to the mainland.

Ms Ng has already written to the Chief Executive twice. Mr Tung did not comment when he made a public appearance yesterday, but a spokeswoman for him said: 'Ms Ng's letters are receiving attention in the Chief Executive's Office.' At the seminar in the Great Hall of the People which Ms Ng was due to attend, an expert in mainland law publicly criticised Beijing for revoking her visa.

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