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Tiananmen activist Wu’er Kaixi tries to surrender to China again

HONG KONG — The second-most wanted student leader of the 1989 Tiananmen pro-democracy protests tried again yesterday to surrender to the Chinese authorities.

HONG KONG — The second-most wanted student leader of the 1989 Tiananmen pro-democracy protests tried again yesterday to surrender to the Chinese authorities.

It was the fourth such attempt by Wu’er Kaixi, who said it was the result of “absurd” actions by the Chinese government. He is stuck in a situation in which he is wanted for arrest and, like many dissidents who have fled, prevented from returning.

Wu’er tried to turn himself in to the authorities in Hong Kong as his flight from Taiwan transited through the semi-autonomous Chinese city yesterday. He wanted officials in Hong Kong to extradite him to mainland China.

Wu’er was accompanied by Hong Kong pro-democracy legislator Albert Ho, who had assisted Edward Snowden as the National Security Agency contractor tried to clarify his legal situation while in Hong Kong in June.

Wu’er said in a blog post that he wants to return to China to see his ailing parents, who have been denied permission to visit him.

“What I’m doing today is a result of the Chinese government’s absurd act of ordering my arrest while refusing to allow me to return,” he wrote.

Wu’er rose to fame as a protester who went on a hunger strike and harangued then Chinese Premier Li Peng in a meeting during the protests. He has lived in exile since fleeing China. AP

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