Tsering Dhundup
DHARAMSHALA, Sept. 10: A German activist working for Tibet rights was stopped and detained at the Hong Kong International Airport for over 13 hours on Monday. David Missal, from the Berlin-based advocacy group Tibet Initiative, in social media posts, said that he had arrived in Hong Kong around 11:30 PM on Sunday night, planning a private visit to the city where he had previously studied. However, upon arrival, immigration authorities took Missal into a separate interrogation room, where he was extensively questioned and his electronic devices were searched.
Missal was eventually released on Monday afternoon but was handed a letter prohibiting him from entering Hong Kong. The authorities also reportedly forced him onto a flight to Vietnam against his will.
In his social media posts, Missal expressed his deep disappointment over the incident, stating that Hong Kong, a city he had grown fond of during his previous studies there, has now become a place with severely diminished freedoms. He said he was standing in solidarity with the people of Hong Kong who are enduring the Chinese government’s crackdown.
Missal has a background in studying Chinese affairs. He previously studied in Germany and China and even attended journalism courses at Beijing’s prestigious Tsinghua University. In 2018, he was expelled from China after interviewing a human rights lawyer, upon which he continued his studies in Hong Kong.
In 2019, Missal’s reporting on the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement for a German newspaper earned him an award from the Hong Kong branch of the International Press Freedom Organization. Since 2020, he has been active in Germany, working as an expert on China and co-founding the Tibet Initiative Deutschland as well as the “Freedom for Hong Kong” advocacy group.
Tenzyn Zöchbauer, Executive Director of Tibet Initiative Germany, condemned the detention and denial of entry, calling it a violation of international human rights standards. She stated that the actions of the Hong Kong authorities are a sign of the city’s diminishing autonomy stating “We strongly condemn the arbitrary detention and denial of entry by the Chinese authorities in Hong Kong. It is unacceptable that even private travellers with critical voices are denied entry. These measures are not only an alarming sign of the ongoing loss of Hong Kong’s autonomy but also a clear violation of international human rights standards,” says Tenzyn Zöchbauer, Executive Director of Tibet Initiative Germany.
Ray Wong, Chairman of the organization Freedom for Hong Kong, commented on the increasing lack of freedom in Hong Kong, stating that foreigners are now also subject to the regime’s control. He added that the National Security Police has become a tool of repression stating “That Hong Kong has become less free is something not only we, who come from Hong Kong, notice. Foreigners are also not safe from the regime’s arbitrariness. The National Security Police has become an instrument of repression”.
After massive and at times violent democracy protests in Hong Kong in 2019, Beijing imposed a sweeping security law to quash dissent. Earlier this year, Hong Kong authorities enacted a second law to punish more security crimes — drawing condemnation from Western nations including the United States about the curbing of freedoms in the city.
