A Thai deputy police chief has called Joshua Wong, the Hong Kong student activist, a threat to Thailand’s national security who should not be allowed to enter the country, adding there has been no pressure from any country.
On 7 October 2016, Royal Thai Police Deputy Commissioner Pol Gen Sriwara Rangsipramanakul said that the detention of 19-year-old student activist Joshua Wong, a key leader of Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement and Secretary-General of the Demosistō Party, was based purely on the judgment of Thailand’s Immigration Bureau, reported Matichon Online.
Sriwara said the Hong Kong activist might incite conflict within the country and can be regarded as a threat to Thailand’s national security. He also stated that it is Thailand’s sovereign right to allow or not allow any individual to enter the country and there was no pressure from any foreign country.
This is, however, contradicts previous reports that the Thai authorities detained the activist and later sent him back to Hong Kong at the request of the Chinese government.
China’s Foreign Ministry also launched a short statement on 5 October refusing to answer if the detention was at China’s request, reported Voice TV.
Wong was invited to the Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University, to give a talk on the politics of the new generation at an event commemorating the 40th anniversary of the 6 October massacre of over a hundred pro-democracy students and bystanders at Thammasat University in 1976 by military and paramilitary forces.
Even though Wong was barred from entering the country, he managed to give a speech at the event through a Skype call.
According to Matichon Online, Sriwara also said that the police have already investigated Wong’s speech and found nothing breaching the law.
Audience at the 6 October commemorative event listens to Joshua Wong’s live Skype speech
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