THE organised presence of several hundred Falun Gong believers raises sensitive questions for Hong Kong and its Government. The reaction yesterday from Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa suggests he may yet produce some wrong answers.
The Falun Gong sect, which follows certain traditional beliefs and exercise practices, has been banned as a dangerous cult on the mainland, but remains entirely legal in Hong Kong.
As members gathered outside the Xinhua offices in Happy Valley, and later marched to Central, they repeated pleas that Beijing learn to tolerate and accept them. They contend Falun Gong has no political agenda, and exists only to promote such things as high moral values and breathing exercises.
If that was all there is to it, the sect could be viewed as just a peaceful, if somewhat bizarre, religious organisation loyal to a guru in faraway New York who often communicates via the Internet.
But the issue, of course, is much more complex. After thousands of Falun Gong members gathered in Beijing last April for a silent protest, the Government panicked. The ability to organise a rally in secret caused Beijing to outlaw it, arrest many members and harass others, while unleashing harsh invective against the absent guru, Li Hongzhi. The Communist Party showed again it will not tolerate any group that might someday become a political rival, no matter how much Falun Gong denies such intentions.
Mr Tung, quite correctly, told Falun Gong members to 'strictly abide' by Hong Kong laws, and reminded residents to obey Chinese law on the mainland, where the sect is illegal. But then he went even further than Xinhua director Jiang Enzhu, who noted the Falun Gong was legal here but 'should not attempt to promote' itself across the border. Mr Tung added that demonstrators 'must not act in any manner which [is] against the interest of China, Hong Kong or 'one country, two systems' '.
