Hong Kong, May 22 (Bloomberg) -- The Hong Kong government keeps a blacklist of people barred from entry to Hong Kong, said Security for Secretary Regina Ip said, two weeks after denying its existence, Agence France Presse reported.
Hong Kong attracted criticism two weeks ago after immigration officials refused entry to more than 100 members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement during a recent visit by China's President Jiang Zemin.
At the time, Ip and other senior government officials denied people were barred from entering Hong Kong because of their religious beliefs or affiliation with any group, AFP said.
Today, pressure from pro-democracy legislators led to Ip admitting the existence of the undesirables list. She refused to say whether the list included Falun Gong members.
Falun Gong, outlawed in mainland China, is permitted in Hong Kong, where the government has kept closer watch on practitioners in recent months, telling them not to break the law.
Yesterday, Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa likened the self-immolation of Falun Gong members to the Jonestown mass suicide in 1978, the strongest indication yet the government wants to ban Falun Gong, the South China Morning Post reported.
In January, a 12-year-old girl, who the Chinese government said was a self-immolating Falun Gong member, burnt to death in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, prompting further crackdowns on the group in China and Hong Kong.
In November 1978, People's Temple leader Jim Jones induced members of the Jonestown cult -- including 270 children -- to drink cyanide-laced punch in Guyana.
Kan Hung-cheung, a Falun Gong spokesman in Hong Kong, said the comparison was ridiculous, AFP reported. Kan said the group isn't an ``evil cult'' and members ``help to create a benevolent society and not crisis.''