Falun Gong in Hong Kong

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This article describes the situation of Falun Gong in Hong Kong under the "one country, two systems" policy of the Chinese government and Hong Kong administration.

Falun Gong (also known as Falun Dafa ) is a spiritual practice published by Li Hongzhi in China in 1992. Practicing Falun Gong or protesting on behalf of Falun Gong is prohibited in China , but the practice still has legal status in Hong Kong , where the constitutional principle of " one country, two systems " provides some protection for civil and political freedoms. Since 1999, Falun Gong practitioners in Hong Kong have held demonstrations and protests against the Chinese government, and supported those who fled China because of the persecution. However, Falun Gong practitioners in Hong Kong also faced some restrictions, triggered by political pressure from Beijing on the Hong Kong government. How the Hong Kong authorities treated Falun Gong has often been used as an indicator to assess the integrity of the "one country, two systems" model.

Initial development

From 1992 to 1994, Li Hongzhi traveled all over mainland China to teach the practice and philosophy of Falun Gong. In 1995, Li was invited by the Chinese Embassy in Paris to teach Falun Dafa abroad. On March 13th he gave a seven-day seminar in Paris, followed by another series of lectures in April in Sweden ( Gothenburg , Stockholm and Uddevalla ). After Li published that he had finished teaching his practice in China, he began teaching Falun Gong in Europe, Oceania , North America, and Southeast Asia . In 1998, Li moved to the United States. In May 1995 and again in November 1997, Li gave public lectures on Hong Kong's Lantau Island . Hong Kong has had an active Falun Gong community since 1996 at the latest, and an estimated 1,000 practitioners in 1999.

Public activities

Falun Gong practitioners demonstrate

There are hundreds of active practitioners in Hong Kong holding a variety of public events and demonstrations to protest the suppression in China and uphold the rights of their fellow practitioners on the mainland. On July 23, 1999, about 1,000 Falun Gong practitioners gathered in Hong Kong to protest the actions taken by the Chinese government on the mainland. Another large-scale protest took place in January 2001. Practitioners regularly hold sit-ins, do public meditation exercises, and frequently visit popular tourist spots where they distribute truth-clarifying materials detailing the human rights violations by the Chinese government.

Tensions with Hong Kong authorities

Since the suppression by the Chinese authorities began in July 1999, Falun Gong has maintained its legal standing in Hong Kong, and practitioners can still freely practice their beliefs and gather for protests, marches, and conferences. However, Human Rights Watch reported that the government was "quietly chiseling the rights of practitioners in the territory"; this in response to pressure from Beijing. Towards the end of 1999, there were several incidents in which Hong Kong bookstores refused to sell Falun Gong books. In December of the same year, Hong Kong's Prime Minister Tung Chee-hwa rejected a planned Falun Gong conference and warned against activities that "are not in the interests of China or Hong Kong, or that do not conform to 'one country, two systems'." In June 2000 and on several subsequent occasions, the Hong Kong authorities banned Falun Gong practitioners from entering their territory to prevent them from entering their territory and participating in demonstrations.

According to Human Rights Watch, in January 2001 pro-Beijing forces "launched a large-scale campaign to definitively ban Falun Gong in Hong Kong." 800 to 1200 Falun Gong practitioners held protests and marches in the city on January 15th, but were prevented from showing pictures of practitioners tortured or killed amid the persecution in mainland China. In addition, they were not allowed to display banners criticizing Jiang Zemin . The Wall Street Journal reported that thirteen Falun Gong practitioners were denied entry to the area where the protests were taking place. Practitioners strictly obeyed the law and went to great lengths to ensure that their behavior was beyond reproach.

The Chinese state media responded to the Falun Gong protests by stating that Hong Kong would become a base for subversion and accusing Falun Gong of colluding with Western "anti-China" forces. Pro-Beijing newspapers in Hong Kong attacked Falun Gong similarly on the first pages. Prominent pro-Beijing politicians also blamed the group for criticizing the mainland government. Hong Kong's security secretary Regina Ip called Falun Gong "underhanded" and said that they would be closely monitored. Although she admitted that Falun Gong practitioners had not broken any laws, she said that such measures were justified because "they may be able to do so in the future." Repeating the Beijing government's discussion points, Prime Minister Tung Chee-hwa said in February 2001 that Falun Gong had "some characteristics of an evil cult" and pointed out that the group would be placed under greater surveillance and control in Hong Kong. Tung also stated that Falun Gong is not allowed to "abuse the freedom and tolerance of Hong Kong" and that the anti-government protests in Beijing are "unacceptable".

In the spring of 2001, security agents from the Ministry of State Security (China) came to Hong Kong to monitor possible Falun Gong activities in advance of Chinese President Jiang Zemin's visit. This time, the practitioners' protests were restricted even further and the authorities took measures to restrict their freedom of speech and assembly . The Hong Kong government also blacklisted foreign Falun Gong practitioners and denied them entry into their territory. These were practitioners from Japan , Australia , Great Britain, and the United States . The Hong Kong authorities justified the blacklist by saying that it was necessary to ensure security.

The government's stance drew condemnation from sectors within Hong Kong civil society and pro-democracy lawmakers. Rev. Stephen Chan, a Catholic priest , had an interview with a reporter for the Wall Street Journal and said, "The government is damaging the reputation of a group of people who have not broken the law." Officials' attitudes toward Falun Gong began to soften when the March 2002 elections for head of government approached as politicians wanted to show the public that “one country, two systems” had remained intact. However, soon after the August 2002 elections, BBC News reported that sixteen Falun Gong practitioners were found guilty of disability for meditating outside the Chinese government's liaison office.

In 2002, the Hong Kong government proposed " Article 23, " an anti-subversion law intended to ban acts of sedition or subversion against the Chinese central government in Beijing. Article 23 would also have resulted in a ban on foreign political organizations and institutions from engaging in political activities in the Hong Kong region and in a ban on domestic political organizations from establishing relationships with foreign organizations. The proposal was controversial, and if it had been successful, it would likely have prevented Falun Gong practitioners from gathering or protesting in Hong Kong. The bill was withdrawn after a protest in July 2003 attended by around 350,000 to 700,000 Hong Kong citizens, ensuring that Falun Gong practitioners still have the right to assemble.

Travel restrictions

Since the end of 2000, there have been several incidents in which Hong Kong authorities have denied entry to their territory for foreign Falun Gong practitioners who wanted to attend demonstrations, conferences, and other events.

In 2003, 80 Taiwanese practitioners were prevented from entering Hong Kong even though they had already obtained a visa because various government departments saw them as a security risk. The Hong Kong Falun Dafa Association requested a judicial review of the incident that sparked a six-year human rights case that examined the integrity of the "one country, two systems" arrangement. The lawsuit lasted until 2009 when the Appeals Court's presiding judge, Geoffrey Ma Tao-li, closed the case because the Hong Kong government lost all documents and government witnesses could not remember what the security risk was.

In 2004, a Canadian Falun Gong practitioner who was on a book tour was refused entry into Hong Kong territory. In 2008, two more Falun Gong practitioners, one from the United States and one from Switzerland, who were on a professional research trip and wanted to separately go to Hong Kong, could not enter. In 2007, hundreds of Taiwanese practitioners were refused entry to Hong Kong, and some were arrested at the airport.

In early 2010, Hong Kong immigration officials refused entry to six Shen Yun Performing Arts Company production workers whose artists practice Falun Gong. These employees were key roles that the show, which should have been in January, had to be canceled. Albert Ho, leader of the Democratic Party, told Agence France Presse that the denial of visas was a worrying new erosion of Hong Kong's freedoms and damaging Hong Kong's reputation for being a liberal and open society. A court ruling in March 2010 overturned the immigration authorities' decision. Chong Yiu Kwong, chairman of Human Rights Monitor, saw the ruling as an encouraging and important step in terms of cultural freedom and the restraint of the immigration service.

In early November 2016, NTDTV Hong Kong, a Chinese-language television broadcaster based in New York, filed a formal application with the Hong Kong administration to invite Shen Yun Performing Arts to Hong Kong for its 2017 world tour. The motion was supported by prominent voices such as the chairman of the subcommittee on foreign affairs of the US House of Representatives Dana Rohrabacher , the former director for European and Soviet affairs John Lenczowski and the congressman Chris Smith . NTDTV and Epoch Times Hong Kong ran a signature campaign to get popular support for the application.

Bibliography

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Gren Manuel and Ian Johnson, Falun Dafa Says Hong Kong is Less Tolerant of Movement, Wall Street Journal, January 15, 2001
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h Mickey Spiegel, Dangerous Meditation: China's Campaign Against Falungong , Human Rights Watch, 2002, ISBN 1-56432-269-6 , accessed February 4, 2018
  3. ↑ Mark Landler, China's Ban Of Magazine Clouds Forum In Hong Kong , New York Times, May 6, 2001, accessed February 4, 2018
  4. ↑ a b David Ownby, Falun Gong and the Future of China , Oxford University Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0-19-532905-6 , accessed November 15, 2016
  5. ^ A b David Ownby, Falun Gong and the Future of China, Oxford University Press, p. 89, 2008, ISBN 978-0-19-532905-6
  6. ^ Benjamin Penny, The Religion of Falun Gong , University of Chicago Press, March 1, 2012, accessed March 4, 2017
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  9. ↑ Greg Torode, James Pomfret and Benjamin Kang Lim, Special Report - The battle for Hong Kong's soul , Reuters, World News, July 1, 2014, accessed February 4, 2018
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  11. ↑ Hong Kong Won't Sell Sect Books, Associated Press Online, July 31, 1999
  12. ↑ Hong Kong Will Check on Falun Gong , New York Times, February 9, 2001, accessed November 15, 2016
  13. ^ Regina Ip admits to existence of blacklist , South China Morning Post, May 23, 2001, accessed February 6, 2018
  14. ↑ Hong Kong convicts Falun Gong members , BBC News World Edition, August 15, 2002, accessed November 15, 2016
  15. ↑ Basiclaw23 , Article 23, accessed February 6, 2018
  16. ^ Wong Yiu-Chung: One Country, Two Systems in Crisis: Hong Kong's Transformation Since the Handover. Lexington books. ISBN 0-7391-0492-6 .
  17. ↑ Taiwan Human Rights Lawyer Denied Entry in Hong Kong , AFP, June 27, 2007, accessed February 6, 2018
  18. ↑ Frank Ching, If documents vanish, so does Government credibility , South China Morning Post, February 22, 2010, accessed November 15, 2016
  19. ↑ Shelley Huang, Taiwanese Falun Gong criticize Hong Kong court ruling , Taipei Times, September 8, 2009, accessed November 15, 2016
  20. ↑ Min Lee, Canadian Falun Gong follower refused boarding onto Hong Kong-bound flight, Associated Press, February 19, 2009
  21. ↑ US Department of State, 2009 International Religious Freedom Report ( Memento of the original from November 11, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , October 26, 2009, accessed February 6, 2018 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.state.gov
  22. ↑ Taiwanese Falun Gong turned back, The Standard, June 27, 2007
  23. ↑ Liu Li-jen, Falun Gong says spying charge is tip of the iceberg , Taipei Times, October 3, 2011, accessed February 6, 2018
  24. ↑ Falungong decries HK as democracy row deepens , Agence France Presse, mysinchew.com, January 27, 2010, accessed February 6, 2018
  25. ↑ Shen Yun Shows in Hong Kong Canceled Due to Visa Refusal , Epoch Times, January 24, 2010, accessed February 6, 2018
  26. ↑ Sonya Bryskine, Hong Kong Court Upholds Freedom and Shen Yun , The Epoch Times, March 9, 2010, accessed February 6, 2018
  27. ↑ Larry Ong, US Officials Back Effort to Bring Shen Yun to Hong Kong , Epoch Times, January 22, 2017, accessed August 21, 2017