Hong Kong pro-democracy figure Nathan Law touched down at Changi Airport Saturday with a freshly approved visa in hand, only to face a four-hour detention and swift deportation, as authorities cited national interests amid his fugitive status back home under Beijing's security crackdown.

Law, 31, who fled Hong Kong in 2020 and secured UK asylum a year later, aimed to join a private, invite-only forum but was yanked aside upon landing, questioned without explanation, and bundled onto the next flight to San Francisco—his origin point—Singapore's Home Affairs Ministry confirmed Sunday.

"Mr Law's entry... would not be in Singapore's national interests," a spokesman said, noting the city-state's extradition pact with Hong Kong and its stance against importing foreign frays.

The snub, Law told reporters, smacked of politics, possibly nudged by Chinese pressure: "I am unsure whether external forces... are involved."He held a UK refugee travel document and a single-entry visa greenlit three weeks prior, underscoring the border check's override power.

Organizers of the unnamed event stayed mum, while Singapore reiterated its allergy to overseas spats, as seen in a 2019 fine for a local activist hosting Joshua Wong virtually.

Law's saga traces to the 2014 Umbrella Movement he helped spark as a teen lawmaker; Beijing's 2020 security law—punishing dissent with life bids—drove his exit, followed by a HK$1 million bounty for his arrest. This marks Singapore's latest brush with Hong Kong's diaspora tensions, in a region where Beijing's reach tests neutral ground.