Macau, China, 5 March – Macau Chief Executive Edmund Ho Hau Wah said Wednesday that he believed that the police “action was founded and in line with the law” when they prevented Hong Kong residents from entering the territory, according to the government’s Information Bureau reported.
Ho, who was speaking to journalists before leaving for Beijing, where he is due to take part in the opening of the second meeting of the 11th National People’s Assembly, added that barring entry of Hong Kong residents into Macau did not “have any relation to the law on State Defence and Security,” which had come into force on Tuesday.
Sam Chon Nin, advisor to the Security Secretary, Wednesday told Portuguese news agency Lusa that barring the entry of non-residents of Macau by the border authorities was a “normal and common” procedure in the world and a result of an assessment of the situation and profile of each particular person.
Sam Chon Nin declined to comment on “specific cases,” but told Lusa that “the chief of the Public Security Police in Macau has the authority, at any time, and in line with an analysis of internal security, with information available on local assessment and regional cooperation, to decide who of the non-residents should or should not enter Macau.”
“It is a normal procedure and is common in all countries and territories,” said Sam Chon Nin noting that the Macau authorities, “act in accordance with the laws of the territory.”
The statements by the Macau Chief Executive and Sam Chon Nin follow in the wake of news that the director of the Law Faculty of Hong Kong University was denied entry to Macau.
Johannes Chan Man-mun travelled to Macau at the end of February to give a talk at Macau University, but on arrival at the sea terminal was denied entry into the territory.
Johannes Chan told Hong Kong daily newspaper, the South China Morning Post that a policeman cited the Internal Security Law to prevent him entering the territory.
According to the Hong Kong daily, democratic parliamentary member, Frederick Fung Kin-kee was Tuesday denied entry into Macau, in a similar decision taken by the local authorities in January and which also affected Bruce Liu Sing-lee also of the Democratic Association for the Better of Hong Kong (DAB).
The cases were made public on the day that the Hong Kong Legislative Assembly discussed the issue of denial of entry into Macau of various Hong Kong residents, including several members of the Assembly and, more recently a photojournalist from the South China Morning Post.
(MacauNews)
