HONG KONG – An outspoken pro-democracy lawmaker in Hong Kong was barred Friday from traveling to southwest China to visit areas damaged in a massive earthquake.

Leung Kwok-hung, a member of the territory's Legislative Council, received word that Chinese authorities had rejected his application for the necessary travel documents shortly before he was to board a plane to the mainland Friday afternoon.

Like many pro-democracy activists, he has been refused a “home-return permit,” the document that lets Hong Kong Chinese travel to the mainland without a visa.

“It's so ironic. People said the Olympic Games will make China more open up, I think it's going backward,” Leung told The Associated Press.

The maverick lawmaker, also known as “Long Hair,” was among a 20-member delegation scheduled to pay a three-day visit to Sichuan to survey the damage from the May 12 earthquake and meet with local officials. Four other pro-democracy lawmakers, however, received approval to travel minutes before they boarded the plane.

Rita Fan, president of the Hong Kong legislature and the delegation's head, said Chinese authorities told her Sichuan officials claimed to have seen Internet reports saying “Leung planned to do something which is not relevant to the purpose of trip.”

“So the provincial government did not approve Leung Kwok-hung's application,” Fan said.

Hong Kong leader Donald Tsang said the decision was made by the mainland Chinese government and he declined to comment further.

“The entry is the business of the Chinese authorities,” he said.

Calls to the Beijing government's liaison office in Hong Kong went answered.

Leung was turned back at the mainland border last year in a bid to petition in Beijing for direct elections in Hong Kong.

Sichuan was the hardest hit province in the May 12 earthquake that killed nearly 70,000 people, left 5 million homeless and destroyed tens of thousands of buildings.