Officials celebrate spring at a Central Government Liaison Office function yesterday. Foreign Affairs Commissioner Ma Yuzhen, Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa; Liaison Office chief Jiang Enzhu, CPPCC vice-chairman Henry Fok Ying-tung and PLA garrison Commander Xiong Ziren.
Picture: Warton Li, Hong Kong iMail
TWO Central Government offices in Hong Kong stepped up their criticism of local Falun Gong members yesterday on the eve of the arrival of a United Nations Human Rights Committee delegation.
Central Government Liaison Office director Jiang Enzhu, speaking after the office's annual spring reception at the Convention and Exhibition Centre, said the sect had become ``more and more politicised and internationalised''.
``And it will endanger Hong Kong,'' he warned.
Asked about reports that the UN delegation planned to meet local Falun Gong members, a spokeswoman for the Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs branded the sect an ``anti-human, anti-society, anti-science, evil cult with political purposes''.
On Sunday, human-rights groups and some pro-democracy legislators slammed government moves to outlaw Falun Gong in Hong Kong and vowed to raise the issue with the delegation.
The Foreign Affairs spokeswoman said Falun Gong was ``treading on human rights, and strangling freedom''.
``Therefore, it is entirely necessary for the Chinese Government to ban the Falun Gong evil cult according to the laws,'' she said.
The spokeswoman said that recent statements by Hong Kong Falun Gong members attacking the Central Government had dispelled any doubts about their being ``non-political, non-anti-government, and not associated with any political force''.
The spokeswoman warned that ``no organisation or person was allowed to try to turn Hong Kong into a centre for Falun Gong activities, to use Hong Kong as an anti-China base, to tarnish the one country, two systems principle, and to damage social stability and prosperity in Hong Kong''.
``Their attempts are doomed to failure,'' she said, adding that Hong Kong's affairs were ``an internal matter'' for China.
``We are firmly opposed to any foreign government and its officials interfering in China's internal affairs by making use of the Falun Gong issue,'' she said.
Last week, the Central Government's Liaison Office described the sect as ``anti-China''.
Mr Jiang declined to repeat that statement, but said the Falun Gong - through actions such as the recent suicide in Tiananmen Square - had seriously endangered mainland society.
Meanwhile, an unprecedented meeting will be held on Friday between local National People's Congress deputies and sect members led by spokesman Kan Hung-cheung.
Local deputy Ma Lik said the sect had approached him recently and asked for the opportunity to explain their beliefs.
At least one other deputy, Dr Raymond Wu Wai-yung - who also sits on the Basic Law Committee - would accompany Mr Ma to meet the sect.
Mr Ma said he would try to persuade sect members to refrain from activities harmful to Hong Kong.
Dr Wu said he would tell Mr Kan that sect members could be allowed to stay in Hong Kong in accordance with the one country, two systems principle.
``But they should prevent themselves from being used by foreign forces, they should keep a clear distance from the sect on the mainland as well as foreign forces,'' he said.
Dr Wu said the SAR Government should not be forced into enactment of an anti-subversion law over just a single issue.
Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference Standing Committee member Xu Simin said he would not raise the Falun Gong issue at the committee plenary session in Beijing next month because he thought that the Central Government already understood the situation.
But he questioned the nature of the sect and why members practised exercises outside the Liaison Office rather than in public parks.
Mr Xu said the sect was different from the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of the Patriotic Democratic Movement in China because its headquarters were in the United States, while the alliance was based in the territory.