AFP: [Mother of] Hong Kong-based Falungong spokeswoman held in Beijing

Sunday, September 14, 2003 HONG KONG, September 15 (AFP) - The mother of the spokeswoman for banned Chinese spiritual [group] Falungong in Hong Kong has been detained in Beijing for "disrupting social order," her daughter Sophie Xiao said Monday.

Yue Chang-zhi, 62, was re-arrested in Beijing in July for distributing flyers about the spiritual group, said Xiao, one of Falungong spokespersons in Hong Kong.

"I have only learned about it recently through friends as I could not contact my sister as she was under surveillance," Xiao told AFP.

She said her mother was arrested soon after her sister Xiao Haiying was released from a one-month detention and put under surveillance, also for disrupting social order, after making a shopping trip to Hong Kong.

Xiao said she would be petitioning the Hong Kong government to help secure her mother's release, adding "I hope for her early release without any harm done to her."

Since Falungong was outlawed in China in July 1999, Xiao's mother has been arrested seven times and twice sent to reform classes.

[...]

However, Falungong is not banned in Hong Kong as the territory has a degree of autonomy in the "one country, two systems" agreement under which the former British colony reverted to Chinese rule in 1997.

Since China outlawed the Falungong thousands of the movement's followers have reportedly been jailed or sentenced to terms in labor camps.

[...]

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