A Chinese activist who spent more than three months camped inside Tokyo’s international airport as part of a protest flew home to China yesterday and was allowed into the country.
Feng Zhenghu (馮正虎), 55, arrived on a flight from Narita International Airport, where he camped from early November until last week to protest China’s refusal to let him enter the country.
His entrance into China comes after eight previous attempts since June where Chinese officials refused to allow him in. Feng has angered the local government by supporting student protests and accusing local authorities of wrongdoing.
A brother confirmed Feng that he had left the airport and was heading to his home in Shanghai.
Feng had said in a telephone interview from Tokyo that he was eager to spend the Lunar New Year with his family.
“I think this request is humble and reasonable. They should not be so nasty as to keep me from going home,” he said.
A dissident writer and human rights activist, Feng was jailed from 2000 to 2003. Detained for several weeks early last year, Feng says he has been harassed by authorities for supporting Shanghai residents seeking redress in property disputes with the local government.
Supporters gathered at the airport, many of them holding pieces of paper with Feng’s name on it.
“Feng is great. He hasn’t done anything wrong but help us fight for justice,” said one of the supporters, Zhou Minwen.
Feng left China in April and began his efforts to return home in June. His last attempt got him as far as Shanghai’s Pudong airport, where Chinese officials forced him to get back on a plane to Tokyo.
Despite holding a valid Chinese passport and a visa to enter Japan, Feng refused to pass immigration control as a protest against China’s government.
Russia and Ukraine have exchanged prisoners of war in the latest such swap that saw the release of hundreds of captives and was brokered with the help of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), officials said on Monday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that 189 Ukrainian prisoners, including military personnel, border guards and national guards — along with two civilians — were freed. He thanked the UAE for helping negotiate the exchange. The Russian Ministry of Defense said that 150 Russian troops were freed from captivity as part of the exchange in which each side released 150 people. The reason for the discrepancy in numbers
A shark attack off Egypt’s Red Sea coast killed a tourist and injured another, authorities said on Sunday, with an Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs source identifying both as Italian nationals. “Two foreigners were attacked by a shark in the northern Marsa Alam area, which led to the injury of one and the death of the other,” the Egyptian Ministry of Environment said in a statement. A source at the Italian foreign ministry said that the man killed was a 48-year-old resident of Rome. The injured man was 69 years old. They were both taken to hospital in Port Ghalib, about 50km north
The foreign ministers of Germany, France and Poland on Tuesday expressed concern about “the political crisis” in Georgia, two days after Mikheil Kavelashvili was formally inaugurated as president of the South Caucasus nation, cementing the ruling party’s grip in what the opposition calls a blow to the country’s EU aspirations and a victory for former imperial ruler Russia. “We strongly condemn last week’s violence against peaceful protesters, media and opposition leaders, and recall Georgian authorities’ responsibility to respect human rights and protect fundamental freedoms, including the freedom to assembly and media freedom,” the three ministers wrote in a joint statement. In reaction
BARRIER BLAME: An aviation expert questioned the location of a solid wall past the end of the runway, saying that it was ‘very bad luck for this particular airplane’ A team of US investigators, including representatives from Boeing, on Tuesday examined the site of a plane crash that killed 179 people in South Korea, while authorities were conducting safety inspections on all Boeing 737-800 aircraft operated by the country’s airlines. All but two of the 181 people aboard the Boeing 737-800 operated by South Korean budget airline Jeju Air died in Sunday’s crash. Video showed the aircraft, without its landing gear deployed, crash-landed on its belly and overshoot a runaway at Muan International Airport before it slammed into a barrier and burst into flames. The plane was seen having engine trouble.
RSS