Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Nathan Law has been denied entry to Singapore after he arrived in the country on Saturday, with the city-state citing “national interests” as the reason.
The Financial Times first reported on Law’s denial of entry to Singapore on Monday.
Law, who is wanted by Hong Kong’s national security police and has been in self-exile since 2020, said on Monday that he was also detained and questioned by Singaporean immigration authorities for four hours after arriving from San Francisco on Saturday.
Without offering an explanation, the Singaporean authorities then informed Law that he had been denied entry, the former student leader said.
Law, who holds a UK refugee passport, said he had received a visa to enter Singapore three weeks ago and that he was scheduled to attend a “closed-door, invitation-only” event in the Southeast Asian city.
He was deported after spending roughly 14 hours in Singapore and subsequently boarded a flight back to San Francisco, he added.
A spokesperson for Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs confirmed the entry denial to HKFP on Monday, saying: “Law’s entry into and presence in the country would not be in Singapore’s national interests.”
“Nathan Law Kwun Chung arrived at Singapore’s Changi Airport from San Francisco on 27 September 2025. He was referred for questioning, and immigration and security assessment,” she said.
Law was then refused entry and placed on the earliest flight back to San Francisco on Sunday, the spokesperson said. “A visa holder is still subject to further checks at [the] point of entry into the country. That is what happened with Nathan Law.”
Singapore has an extradition treaty with Hong Kong.
In 2020, Singaporean activist Jolovan Wham served 10 days in jail for “organising an illegal assembly” after he held an online forum, which featured Wong as a speaker, in 2016.
Umbrella Movement leader
Law, one of the student leaders of the 2014 Umbrella Movement, co-founded the pro-democracy party Demosisto in 2016 alongside Joshua Wong and Agnes Chow.
Sunday marked the 11th anniversary of the moment police first fired tear gas in Admiralty, ahead of a 79-day street occupation movement.
Law won a seat in the 2018 Legislative Council elections when he was 23, becoming the youngest lawmaker in the city’s history.
He left Hong Kong days before Beijing imposed a national security law on June 30, 2020, following large-scale pro-democracy protests and unrest in 2019.
In July 2023, police issued an arrest warrant for Law – alongside seven other self-exiled activists – on secession and foreign collusion allegations and placed a HK$1 million bounty on his head.
Law’s family members in Hong Kong, including his parents and a brother, were taken in by police for questioning shortly after the arrest warrant was issued. They were released after giving statements.
Law’s Hong Kong passport was cancelled last year under Hong Kong’s second security law, the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance – known locally as Article 23.
Beijing inserted national security legislation directly into Hong Kong’s mini-constitution in June 2020 following a year of pro-democracy protests and unrest. It criminalised subversion, secession, collusion with foreign forces and terrorist acts – broadly defined to include disruption to transport and other infrastructure. The move gave police sweeping new powers and led to hundreds of arrests amid new legal precedents, while dozens of civil society groups disappeared. The authorities say it restored stability and peace to the city, rejecting criticism from trade partners, the UN and NGOs.
