A barred human rights activist and booing soccer fans in Hong Kong – China’s latest political and current affairs news

“I said: ‘Does this mean “one country, two systems” is dead? Is it “one country, one system” now?’ He looked at me actually very sadly, almost with tears in his eyes, and said: ‘I’m just doing my job. I can’t comment.’”

This is the recollection of Benedict Rogers, the deputy chair of the human rights commission of the current British government, of his encounter with the immigration officer who escorted him onto a flight out of Hong Kong on orders from the local government on October 11. He had entered the city to meet with friends and democracy activists, and has previously criticized the government for its crackdown on protesters. The Guardian reports that upon hearing of Rogers’s case, British foreign secretary Boris Johnson said, “I am very concerned that a UK national has been denied entry to Hong Kong. The British government will be seeking an urgent explanation from the Hong Kong authorities and from the Chinese government.”

Hong Kong’s immigration department disputed Rogers’s version of events, but still did not give a reason for his expulsion from the city. Anson Chan, a former top civil servant in Hong Kong, commented, “Is it going to be the norm that anyone who dares speak against the official line will be barred from Hong Kong? It’s increasingly looking that way,” adding, “Cases like this are why our younger generation is so angry.”

Meanwhile, that younger generation continues to voice its anger, this time booing the Chinese national anthem as Hong Kong’s men’s soccer team prepared to face off against Malaysia in an Asian Cup qualifier, the New York Times reports (paywall). According to the South China Morning Post, it was the “14th match in a row home fans have protested against the anthem since Hong Kong played host to Bhutan in a World Cup qualifier in June 2015, six months after the Occupy pro-democracy protests.” The Times notes that despite a law in mainland China banning national anthem protests that recently went into effect, the protests in Hong Kong are legal, as Hong Kong’s semi-autonomous legal system requires it to enact its own version of the law, which it has not yet done.

—Lucas Niewenhuis

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