Wu'er Kaixi tried to turn himself to authorities in Hong Kong as his flight transited through the semiautonomous Chinese city today. He wanted officials in the former British colony to extradite him to mainland China.
Wu'er was accompanied by Hong Kong pro-democracy legislator Albert Ho.
It's Wu'er's latest attempt to surrender. He said in a blog post he wants to go back to China to see his ailing parents and other family members, whom he hasn't seen since he fled into exile 24 years ago.
He added that he wants to be reunited with his relatives "even if the reunion would have to take place behind a glass wall."
In 2009, he was denied entry to Macau, like nearby Hong Kong a specially administered Chinese region.
Last year he tried to turn himself into the Chinese embassy in Washington. In 2010 he was arrested when he tried to enter the Chinese embassy in Tokyo.
Wu'er rose to fame as a pajama-clad hunger striker haranguing then-Chinese Premier Li Peng during a televised meeting during the protests in Beijing.
He has lived in exile in the United States and then the self-ruled island of Taiwan since fleeing China.
