The global head of Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said he was denied entry to Hong Kong on Sunday, where he was scheduled to launch the organisation's latest world report with a focus on China's "intensifying assault" on human rights.

Key points: Kenneth Roth said China's efforts to interfere with the work of international groups like Human Rights Watch was a form of global censorship

Kenneth Roth said China's efforts to interfere with the work of international groups like Human Rights Watch was a form of global censorship The annual report will now be launched on January 14 at the United Nations in New York

The annual report will now be launched on January 14 at the United Nations in New York Mr Roth said officials told him he was barred from entering Hong Kong due to "immigration reasons"

HRW, based in New York, was scheduled to release its 652-page World Report 2020 at the Foreign Correspondent Club in Hong Kong on January 15.

The group's executive director Kenneth Roth said he was blocked at Hong Kong airport from entering for the first time, having entered freely in the past.

"Sadly this episode is just the latest evidence that the Chinese Government is doing everything it can to undermine the enforcement of international human rights standards," Mr Roth said.

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"I had hoped to spotlight Beijing's deepening assault on international efforts to uphold human rights.

"The refusal to let me enter Hong Kong vividly illustrates the problem."

In a video Mr Roth filmed at Hong Kong International airport and later shared on Twitter, he said officials told him he was barred from entering Hong Kong due to "immigration reasons".

The Chinese-ruled city of Hong Kong has endured months of at times violent anti-government protests.

Many people in Hong Kong are angered by what they see as Beijing's ever-tightening grip on the city, which was promised a high degree of autonomy under a "one country, two systems" framework when the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

Beijing denies interference and blames the West for fomenting the unrest.

During the protests several activists, foreign journalists and academics were barred, HRW said in a statement.

Denied entry for 'immigration reasons'

Mr Roth said his treatment was a sign that Beijing was "tightening its oppressive grip on Hong Kong". ( AP: Vincent Yu )

Mr Roth had visited Hong Kong numerous times in the past, including to release a HRW report on gender discrimination in the Chinese job market in April 2018.

"He was told repeatedly that he was being denied for unspecified 'immigration reasons'," Sophie Richardson, HRW's China director, told the ABC.

"Given he has been to Hong Kong as recently as 18 months ago … it's hard to read the rejection today as anything other than indicative of larger trends."

On December 2, 2019, a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs official threatened to impose unspecified "sanctions" against HRW and several US-based pro-democracy organisations but neither Beijing nor Hong Kong authorities have since provided further details, according to HRW.

Ms Richardson said the organisation had "no intention of doing anything any differently" in the wake of Mr Roth's experience and the threatened sanctions.

"We are committed completely and inalterably to doing high quality, fact-based research … Nothing is going to change that," she said.

The Hong Kong Government had no immediate response to Reuters' questions about why Mr Roth was denied entry.

"This disappointing action is yet another sign that Beijing is tightening its oppressive grip on Hong Kong and further restricting the limited freedom Hong Kong people enjoy under 'one country, two systems'," Mr Roth said in the organisation's statement.

"My denial of entry pales in comparison to the harassment that Chinese activists routinely endure — jail, torture, and enforced disappearance simply for trying to secure basic rights for their fellow citizens.

"But China's efforts to interfere with the work of international groups like Human Rights Watch is a form of global censorship that governments should resist before it's too late."

HRW said in a statement that Mr Roth would now launch the report on January 14 at the United Nations in New York.

ABC/Reuters