A trio of prominent Hong Kong pro-democracy activists has urged Tokyo to rethink a scheduled state visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to Japan as the international community continues to voice scathing criticism of Beijing’s plan to directly impose national security laws on the city as part of its crackdown on dissent there.
“We ... hope that Prime Minister (Shinzo) Abe ... and the Japanese government can think twice about whether they really need to invite President Xi to Japan,” activist Agnes Chow said during an online news conference Wednesday set up by the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan in Tokyo.
Chow added that the timing “might not be very appropriate,” considering how “the human rights situation in Hong Kong is being criticized by the international community.”