Border blockage

Pouco antes do incidente de domingo passado, a jornalista Eva Wu, do South China Morning Post, fez o seguinte levantamento das recusas recentes de entrada em Macau a figuras conhecidas de Hong Kong:

April 28, 2008: League of Social Democrats deputy chairman Michael Mak Kwok-fung, a psychiatric nurse, is denied entry to Macau for an academic exchange.

June 12: Christina Chan Hau-man, a student at the University of Hong Kong who protested with a Tibetan flag during Hong Kong's Olympic torch relay and tried to disrupt the equestrian competition, is turned away from Macau, where she planned to board a flight to Australia.

November 22: Civic Party legislator Ronny Tong Ka-wah is allowed to enter Macau after being detained by the authorities for 10 minutes. He met Macau lawmakers to exchange views on the city's preparations for a national security bill.

November 23: League of Social Democrats lawmaker Leung Kwok-hung, who was earlier denied entry, successfully enters Macau to join a protest against the national security legislation, based on Article 23 of Macau's Basic Law.

December 20: Nine lawmakers from the pan-democratic camp, along with 15 other activists, are barred from entering Macau on the day the city celebrates the ninth anniversary of its handover. They had intended to join a protest against the national security legislation.

January 31, 2009: Macau shuts the door on lawmaker Frederick Fung Kin-kee, from the Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood. The former association chairman had planned to meet a former staff member and a friend from Shanghai.

February 18: South China Morning Post photographer Felix Wong Chi-keung is stopped from entering the city despite having been granted a Macau government permit to cover a court case.

February 27: Johannes Chan Man-mun, dean of the faculty of law at the University of Hong Kong, becomes the first scholar to be denied entry to Macau. Professor Chan had intended to attend an annual lecture at the University of Macau.