Falun Gong Practitioners Protest Smear Campaign in Hong Kong

AFP: Hong Kong [Falun Gong] practitioners picket [...] show

September 3, 2001

HONG KONG, Sept 3 (AFP) - Falun Gong practitioners staging a sit-in protest at an anti-(Jiang Zemin's slanderous term deleted) exhibition here Monday urged the event's China-backed organisers to stop its "smear campaign" against the spiritual group.

"We want the organisers to put a stop to the smear campaign," said Lu Jie, who organised the protest. "There is no truth in the exhibition."

She demanded an apology from the organisers of the three-day exhibition, which is backed by groups including Beijing newspaper Wen Wei Po.

"We want the organisers to apologize," said Lu, adding that the Falun Gong was registered in Hong Kong and was considering legal action.

Falun Gong practitioners have been protesting at the three-day exhibition since it opened on Sunday and are calling on its organisers to stop being used as "tools" of Beijing. Members plan to hand in a petition and confirmed their protest will continue until the event closes on Tuesday.

The three-day ... exhibition, in the China Resources Building in business district Wanchai, is Hong Kong's second in less than six months. [...]

[...]

Last week 10 Falun Gong members were arrested here for alleged obstruction after staging a hunger strike for 130 fellow practitioners who they claim are being held in a labour camp in Heilongjiang province, north-east China.

Human rights groups are concerned the arrests could signal a tougher stance against Falun Gong and the beginning of attempts to bring the group under control.

Falun Gong combines [Buddha]philosophy and meditation exercises. Advocates say it promotes clean living and good health.

It was banned by the Chinese government in July 1999 in a move seen by many analysts as a sign top leaders feared its influence over the public.

The movement is still legal in Hong Kong, which enjoys a large degree of autonomy from Beijing under the terms of the 1997 handover agreement which saw sovereignty transferred from Britain to China.

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010903/1/1e1l5.html

September 3, 2001

HONG KONG (AP)--Falun Gong members found themselves barred from an "anti (Jiang Zemin's slanderous term deleted)" exhibition Monday after security guards forcibly removed a follower from the entrance of the exhibition hall.

Dacky Sin, 32, was picked up and taken away by three uniformed security guards at the Hong Kong Exhibition Center, which has been staging an exhibition portraying Falun Gong as [term omitted].

Another Falun Gong follower, Chau Sing, said that she, Sin and six other members were trying to deliver a letter Monday afternoon expressing the group's view to the conference organizer, the pro-Beijing newspaper Wen Wei Po.

Chau said about seven or eight security guards ordered them to leave, saying the exhibition hall was a private area and that they were "not welcome" at the three-day exhibition that ends Tuesday.

Sin was later released and had some bruises on his neck, but the other Falun Gong followers left on their own.

At least three police officers were at the scene but they didn't try to intervene, according to Associated Press photographer Vincent Yu.

A police inspector, identifying himself only by his surname, Ma, said the exhibition place was private and owners were allowed to use "minimal force" to remove anybody who isn't welcome.

"This is an unfair and uncivilized act," said Falun Gong spokesman Kan Hung-cheung, who formerly worked as a reporter for Wen Wei Po. "It reflects the discrimination and hostility of some pro-Beijing groups toward Falun Gong."

[...] Outside the exhibition hall, some Falun Gong members held banners and distributed leaflets to passers-by in a protest against the exhibition they say is defaming the group. Falun Gong is banned in mainland China but remains legal in Hong Kong, where residents still enjoy considerably more Western-style freedoms since its return from British to Chinese sovereignty in 1997.

[...] The removal of Sin was similar to the "minimal force" the police had used when they arrested 10 Falun Gong members for allegedly disrupting the public outside China's liaison office here Aug. 25.

The Falun Gong members were later released without being charged, but the arrest marked the toughest action Hong Kong has taken on the group.

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