An attempt by three Hong Kong students to fly to Beijing to lobby the Communist party directly for greater democratic rights failed on Saturday when they were stopped at the airport.
Alex Chow, Nathan Law and Eason Chung, found their "home return permits", a visa for Hong Kongers to visit the mainland, cancelled when they arrived at the airport.
The three members of the Hong Kong Federation of Students, one of the driving forces behind six weeks of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, had hoped to press their case on Li Keqiang, the Chinese prime minister, in Beijing.
Staff from Cathay Pacific, the airline, told the three that their papers had been invalidated and denied them the right to board one of the company's Dragonair flights.
"If we cannot step foot onto our country, how can they expect us to love the country?" said Joshua Wong, another student leader, afterwards. "How can they win our confidence if we cannot even step onto the mainland?"
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