Joshua Wong and the double standards of the Thai junta

Treatment of the Hong Kong activist contrasts sharply to that of a key witness in Malaysia’s 1MDB scandal

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Joshua Wong (centre) arrives at Hong Kong International after being denied entry into Thailand. Photo: Sam Tsang

Published: 6:08pm, 7 Oct 2016Updated: 1:07pm, 18 Aug 2017

The Thai government appears to have exercised double standards in its recent treatment of two foreigners, namely Xavier Justo, a Swiss citizen, and Joshua Wong Chi-fung, a young Hong Kong activist.

Wong, 19, played a prominent role in the Occupy Central protests for democracy in Hong Kong in late 2014. Justo, who is 49 with a wife and young child, is a key witness in the scandal surrounding the Malaysian state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad, or 1MDB. Justo was sentenced to three years in a Thai prison in June last year for blackmailing his former employer PetroSaudi International, a Saudi oil exploration and production company which was formerly a partner of 1MDB. Justo had leaked information on PetroSaudi and 1MBD to various media.

The Thai government has treated these two foreigners very differently.

Wong was denied entry to Thailand after he got off a plane at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport on October 4, detained for 12 hours, then sent back to Hong Kong the next day.

He had been invited to speak to students at Chulalongkorn University about the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong.