HONG KONG (AP) — The second most wanted student leader from the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests was turned back from Hong Kong on Monday in his latest attempt to surrender to Chinese authorities and return home.
It was the fourth such attempt by Wu'er Kaixi, who said his lack of success so far was the result of the "absurd" actions by the Chinese government. Wu'er, who has lived in exile for more than two decades, is stuck in a situation where he's both wanted for arrest and, like many other dissidents who have fled, prevented from returning to China.
Wu'er confirmed in a text message that he was being sent back home to Taiwan. He had tried to turn himself in to authorities in Hong Kong as his flight from Taipei, Taiwan, transited through the semiautonomous Chinese city on Monday on the way to Bangkok. He wanted officials in Hong Kong to extradite him to mainland China.
Wu'er was accompanied by Hong Kong pro-democracy legislator Albert Ho, who also assisted Edward Snowden as the National Security Agency contractor tried to clarify his legal situation while hiding out in Hong Kong in June.
Wu'er said in a blog post that he wants to go back to China to see his ailing parents and other family members, whom he hasn't seen since he fled into exile 24 years ago. His parents have also been denied permission to visit him.
"What I'm doing today is a result of the Chinese government's absurd act of ordering my arrest, while at the same time refusing to allow me to return," he wrote. He added that he wants to be reunited with his relatives "even if the reunion would have to take place behind a glass wall."
