ADPL to query Beijing over visit surveillance
The Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood will ask China why its members were placed under surveillance by public security officers during their trip to Beijing.
They said they were followed to their hotel by plain-clothes officers after Thursday's meeting with Wang Guisheng , the head of the Foreign Ministry's Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office.
After the journey - about 15 minutes by car - the officers videotaped and took photographs of a briefing to Hong Kong reporters.
At the meeting with Mr Wang, the six-member delegation, led by chairman Frederick Fung Kin-kee, handed in a white cloth carrying more than 17,000 signatures from Hong Kong residents, urging China to take tougher action in the Diaoyu Islands row.
Mr Fung said: 'We were invited by the Foreign Ministry to the meeting with Mr Wang and there's nothing unlawful about the meeting. We don't understand why we came under surveillance.
'When we had a briefing with reporters at the hotel, the public security officers took pictures of all of us.' Mr Fung said there were more public security officers than delegates.
The delegation did not immediately lodge a complaint with the Chinese authorities, but would ask for an explanation.
Mr Fung did not want to speculate whether the surveillance was related to their Diaoyu Islands protest. Beijing this week warned mainland activists not to organise protests over the issue.
