Harry Wu refused HK entry again

A Chinese American human rights activist has again been denied permission to visit Hong Kong.

Harry Wu, who is an American citizen, had been invited to speak at a panel discussion on changes to the territory's government in the five years since the former British colony was handed over to China.

The authorities have refused his application to enter Hong Kong; he was deported from there in April after being intercepted at the airport.

A spokesman for the American consulate David Miller said the US was worried about implications for the free flow of information.

But the secretary for security, Regina Ip, shrugged off concerns, saying that Mr Wu could email or telephone his friends in Hong Kong.

Mr Wu is a former dissident who highlighted conditions in China's prison camps, where he was locked up for nineteen years.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service