Singapore Denies Exiled Hong Kong Activist Entry Despite Approved Visa: “Not in National Interest”
Nathan Law, a Hong Kong activist, was not allowed to enter Singapore even though he had a valid visa. This has caused political concerns about Beijing’s sway.
Nathan Law is a pro-democracy activist from Hong Kong. Despite having a visa, Singapore has refused to let him in because they are worried about national security.
Law has been living in exile in the UK since 2020. He said he went to Singapore on Saturday for a private meeting but was held at the border for four hours before being sent back to San Francisco on a flight.
Law told the BBC, “They didn’t ask me any questions and they didn’t give a reason for the doubt.” He said that his short-stay visa had been accepted three weeks before.
The decision was confirmed by Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs, which said, “Mr. Law’s entry into and presence in the country would not be in Singapore’s national interests.” Officials made it clear that people with visas will still have to go through more checks at the point of entry, such as customs and security checks.
The law thinks the move was political. “I don’t know if outside forces, like the PRC, are involved in a direct or indirect way,” he said.
Law, who used to be a lawmaker in Hong Kong, left the city when Beijing passed a broad national security law in 2020. The next year, he was given refuge in the UK. Since then, Hong Kong police have put out arrest warrants for him and are offering a prize of HK$1m ($128,000; £95,000) for information that leads to his capture.
Singapore and Hong Kong have an extradition treaty, and Singapore has long had a strategy of keeping political disputes in other countries out of its own. In 2019, it fined a local activist for having Joshua Wong from Hong Kong on an online group.
