Yang Jianli protested at Tiananmen and later served a five-year jail term in China on charges of spying for China's rival Taiwan and entering China illegally. -- PHOTO: AP
HONG KONG - A US-based dissident who took part in the 1989 pro-democracy protests in Beijing's Tiananmen Square was denied entry to discuss the demonstrations at a Hong Kong conference, an organiser said.
The student protests, which the Chinese military crushed, killing at least hundreds of people, remain a taboo in mainland China, where the government still considers them a 'counterrevolutionary' riot.
4 dissidents invited
Prof Cheng also said on Monday that two other US-based dissidents who were invited to his conference, Wang Dan and Wang Juntao, were also denied visas when they applied at Chinese consular offices, but corrected himself on Tuesday, saying that Wang Dan was never invited and Wang Juntao had not applied for his visa yet.
A fourth dissident, Beijing-based Chen Ziming, was also invited but has not accepted, Prof Cheng said.
Beijing has never given a full accounting of the military crackdown.
Yang Jianli, was denied entry when he arrived at the Hong Kong airport three weeks ago, Hong Kong political scientist Joseph Cheng said Monday.
Yang, a US permanent resident, protested at Tiananmen and later served a five-year jail term in China on charges of spying for China's rival Taiwan and entering China illegally.
He was also turned away at the Hong Kong airport in August just before the Beijing Olympics.
While the Tiananmen movement remains a sensitive topic in mainland China, it is openly discussed and commemorated in Hong Kong, a Beijing-ruled former British colony that's promised Western-style civil liberties.
Tens of thousands of people usually attend an annual candlelight vigil honouring victims of the Tiananmen crackdown. -- AP
