_WORLD WATCH______________________________
_________________Hong Kong______________

Support voiced for Falun Gong
Church groups see looming dangers

Demonstrators in Hong Kong protested against Chinese government statements against the spiritualist Falun Gong movement following a ban imposed by the Communist government in Beijing.

About 20 people representing Christian and human-rights groups gathered outside the offices of Governor Tung Cheehwa to protest recent comments about Falun Gong, which is technically legal in Hong Kong despite China’s ban. Tung last week referred to the group as “an evil cult,” echoing similar statements out of Beijing.

A statement issued by the protesters and signed by 30 local organizations accused the government of being “unreasonable and unjust” and infringing on freedoms in the former British colony, which was guaranteed a high degree of autonomy when it reverted to Chinese control in July 1997. 

“To call the Falun Gong an evil cult is alarming, not only for the movement but also for the Church,” Bishop Joseph Zen wrote in an article in the Sunday Examiner, the Hong Kong diocesan weekly. Regarding the situation of the Catholic Church in mainland China, Bishop Zen recalled that “any kind of resistance and protest, even though peaceful, is not allowed in mainland China.” He said that most leaders of the underground Catholic Church have to date escaped the severe treatment meted out to Falun Gong “because their protest has only been low-key and the international prestige of the Catholic Church cannot be ignored.” But he warned that Chinese policy could change, and “what has been done to the former could easily be extended to suppress the latter.”