British journalist forced to leave Hong Kong

The Financial Times Asia news editor, Victor Mallet, has been forced out of Hong Kong.

The Financial Times Asia news editor, Victor Mallet, has left Hong Kong. He is believed to be the first foreign journalist ordered out of the city since the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

Mallet recently chaired a lunch at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club addressed by Andy Chan, the leader of a political party advocating Hong Kong’s ­independence from China.

The lunch angered Beijing, which had called for it to be cancelled.

Mallet, who has 30 years ­experience as a foreign correspondent, was forced to leave Hong Kong after a routine work visa renewal was rejected.

When he returned to Hong Kong last weekend after a brief trip, re-entering as a tourist, he was given seven days to leave. British citizens are normally given work visas for six months. Mallet left on Friday.

His expulsion shocked the foreign press community and is seen as another sign that freedoms, ­including press freedoms, are increasingly under pressure. The government of Hong Kong, officially a semi- autonomous region of China, banned Chan’s party after the FCC speech.

Carrie Lam, the chief executive of Hong Kong, said the immigration department would not give reasons for not renewing Mallet’s work visa. She said the city would “not tolerate any act that advocates Hong Kong independence and endangers national security and territorial integrity”.

She said and any suggestion that Mallet’s loss of his work visa was linked to his hosting the FCC lunch was “pure speculation’’.