HONG KONG (AP)--Falun Gong followers Wednesday accused mainland China of heavy-handed tactics in the dispute over the sect's activities here - which prompted two Dutch officials to scrap visits to Beijing and Hong Kong.
"It's very regrettable that the Chinese government put it in such high profile and put pressure on the Dutch government," said Falun Gong spokesman Kan Hung-cheung.
Kan had planned to meet with the Dutch human rights ambassador, Renee Jones-Bos, next week in Hong Kong, where the government is now being urged by Beijing to restrict Falun Gong's campaign against the often-violent crackdown on the meditation sect in mainland China.
After the Dutch said they wanted to hear Falun Gong's side of the story, Beijing lashed out Monday at foreign "interference" in its affairs. The Dutch responded Tuesday by indefinitely postponing a visit by Foreign Minister Jozias van Aartsen to Beijing and the trip by Jones-Bos to Hong Kong.
"The minister doesn't believe that his schedule should be changed under pressure from the Chinese government," said Dutch foreign ministry spokesman Bart Jochems.
Falun Gong is outlawed in China as an "evil cult." But it remains legal in Hong Kong, where a storm has been raging amid Beijing's anger at seeing the sect utilize Hong Kong's free speech rights to clamor for the ability to practice on the mainland and an end to alleged torture-killings by Chinese police.