WASHINGTON, July 11 (Reuters) - Hong Kong's Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa assured President George W. Bush on Wednesday that religious and press freedoms were "alive and kicking" in the Chinese territory despite concerns expressed by Bush over human rights in China.
"Freedom of the press and religion is alive and kicking and doing well," Tung told reporters, recounting his half-hour conversation with Bush at the White House.
A senior U.S. official said Bush had expressed concern over religious freedom in China, citing China's crackdown on the Falun Gong spiritual group, and the threat of a spillover into Hong Kong.
Tung told Bush that an autonomous Hong Kong would continue to tolerate a broad range of religious expressaid.
The official also said that Tung had sought to minimize action earlier in the day by the Hong Kong Legislative Council that democratic activists there saw as eroding the territory's autonomy four years after the former British colony was returned to China.
The council on Wednesday gave China the power to fire the territory's leader. The U.S. official said that Tung, who was effecti effecti
20:06 07-11-01
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