"Falungong under pressure over proposed Thailand meeting"

(AFP, February 21, 2001)

BANGKOK - Falungong followers in Thailand have come under pressure after the authorities warned the group that they must respect Thai law if they wish to hold a meeting here, organisers said Wednesday.
"At first we didn't know we had to ask for permission, and now that we know, there is some pressure," said local Falungong spokesman Nappadol Eakabutr.
The group had planned a meeting of some 500 Falungong practitioners for April before Thailand's foreign ministry urged caution Tuesday.
"We have not decided yet what we will do. We will have a meeting among members this week to consider the issue," Nappadol said.
Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai said the government would consider a request by members of the spiritual sect to meet here on the condition that they do not use it as an opportunity to attack China.
"We will tell them what kind of activities they can undertake and which ones they cannot," he told reporters Tuesday.
"But legal action will be taken if they violate the agreement," Surakiart added.
The Falungong has yet to make a formal request for permission to gather in Bangkok, he said.
Thai police chief General Pornsak Durongkaviboon said officers were keeping a close watch on the activities of Falungong members in Thailand.
Pornsak stressed that Thailand does not have a law banning the group from the country, but urged the sect not to hold a meeting in Thailand.
"They should not hold the meeting here if it is not necessary," he said.
"We want to keep good relations with China," Pornsak added.
The Thai-Chinese community and Buddhist associations recently called on the government to prevent such a meeting from going ahead here.
"Falungong is an evil cult. Their presence here will destabilise Thai society," said Norrarat Tangpakorn, president of the Thai-Chinese Journalists' Welfare Foundation.
The Thai foreign ministry said last week that China had lodged an official protest over the planned conference, which would be attended by both Thai and overseas Falungong practitioners.
Nappadol said the conference was organised in good faith, and that it would be open to the public, including the press and government officials.
"The theme of the meeting is an exchange of views and experiences among us and it will have nothing to do with politics at all," he said.
The group says there are about 1,000 Falungong followers in Thailand, who hold regular sessions in parks around Bangkok to practise the movement's trademark breathing and exercise routines.
The Chinese government views the Falungong, which claims 70 million adherents in China alone, as the biggest threat to Communist Party rule since the 1989 Tiananmen democracy protests.
It banned the movement as an "evil cult" three months after it gathered 10,000 followers for a silent protest at the Communist Party headquarters in Beijing.
Falungong members, who follow the Buddhist-inspired teachings of guru Li Hongzhi, who lives in exile in the United States, insist they have no political agenda and members are taught how to attain high moral standards and physical well-being through meditation.

"China 're-educates' cult members "

by John Gittings ("The Guardian," February 20, 2001)

China has admitted making extensive use of a much-criticised form of imprisonment without trial in its efforts to suppress the banned Falun Gong spiritual sect. The practice of sending people to labour camps for "re-education" has been condemned by human rights groups abroad. They say Beijing may also be employing it to clear the streets of undesirables during its bid to stage the 2008 Olympic Games.
A team from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) visits the city today to assess the bid. The police are on heightened alert against demonstrations, after another alleged Falun Gong supporter committed suicide in public on Friday.
A thousand women followers of Falun Gong have been "successfully re-educated" at a "re-education through labour institute" in Liaoning province, the official People's Daily reported at the weekend.
It said the "tutors" at the Masanjia camp provided "loving care", helping the inmates to overcome their resistance to reform. Claims by the Falun Gong organisation abroad that many members had been tortured by Masanjia were denied.
The figures quoted for one camp in one province give an idea of the magnitude of the operation against the Falun Gong. The People's Daily said more than 300 inmates had returned home from Masanjia after finishing their "re-education terms". Another 300 had their terms reduced or were serving them "outside the facility".
The process of labour re-education appears similar to the "thought reform" methods used in Chinese labour camps during the Mao Zedong era.
In a typical case in Masanjia, a "former cult leader", Li Lina, says the prison "even provided the latest articles of Li Hongzhi and organised former practitioners to debate them".
The use of repentant inmates to persuade more stubborn prisoners to change their beliefs was a characteristic feature of the "thought reform" process.
Mr Li, the Falun Gong's spiritual "master", who issues his pronouncements from the US, has denounced unnamed Falun Gong members for working for the authorities after being persuaded to recant.
The Human Rights in China group in the US calculates that up to 2m people are picked up under some form of "administrative custody" every year, at least 5% of them children.
The system, used in the past mainly against marginalised groups - typically those without jobs or papers or fixed abode - allows detention of up to two years without trial.
In a letter to the IOC, the co-chairman of Human Rights in China, Robert Bernstein, says that it "cannot risk further shame by abetting Beijing's abuse of citizens." He urges the IOC to "insist that China pledge not to use these camps to make Beijing more presentable for the games".
Falun Gong sources abroad have published claims of alleged torture in the detention camps leading to more than 140 deaths since the Falun Gong was banned in July 1999.
Beijing routinely denies that torture occurs, while admitting that Falun Gong members have died in detention.
"You have to ask how they died," a Chinese diplomat, Zhang Yuanyuan, told the BBC last week. "So there are some who are old, sick and they commit suicide.
"They throw themselves against the wall and got themselves fatally injured, and they refused to eat, refused to take medicine, refused medical attention, and people also died of natural causes."
Falun Gong confirms that members frequently resort to hunger strike as a form of protest, and say that this is dealt with brutality.
It publicised the case of Li Mei who died in Hefei detention centre on February 1 after going on hunger strike. Her family were allegedly not allowed to examine her body.
An Amnesty International report says the crackdown fits a pattern in which the government demands quick results from local officials who then use torture to obtain recantations or confessions.
It says that out of the 120 alleged Falun Gong deaths it has looked at, 17 "jumped" to their death, according to official reports, and 15 "fell" while in detention.
It says there is evidence that force feeding was carried out by people with no medical training, resulting in damage to the windpipe and other reportedly fatal complications.
China rejected the report as based on "rumours and hearsay".

"Thai Falun Gong meeting shelved after pressure"

by Nopporn Wong-Anan (Reuters, February 20, 2001)

BANGKOK - A group of Falun Gong practitioners in Thailand said on Tuesday they were postponing a proposed meeting in Bangkok in April because of opposition from Thai officials and Beijing.
Falun Gong practitioners from around the world had been invited to the two-day meeting from April 21-22.
But Nopphdol Eakabuse, one of the meeting's organisers, told Reuters the gathering was being postponed due to "a lot of pressure."
"We'll have to wait until the dust settles," he said.
Falun Gong, based on elements of Taoism, Buddhism and traditional Chinese meditation and exercises, was banned by the Chinese leadership as an "evil cult" in 1999.
Thailand said on Tuesday it had not received any official request for permission to hold the meeting, but hinted that permission would anyway be withheld.
Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai told reporters he would not allow any activities directed against Thailand's neighbours to take place in the country.
"We do not allow anybody to use Thai soil to hold any political activities," Surakiart told reporters.
"If their request arrives, we will tell them what they can and cannot do, and we will prosecute them if they break the agreement."
A senior foreign ministry official told Reuters the comments amounted to a rejection of the meeting.
"If you read between the lines of what minister Surakiart said, the answer is a red light, not a green light," he said.
Asked whether the group had planned to protest against the Chinese government during the meeting, Nopphdol said: "We didn't have such intentions."
Thai officials had voiced concerns that the planned meeting would upset Beijing and hurt Thailand's interests.
The Bangkok Post newspaper reported on Tuesday that China's charge d'affaires in Thailand, Chai Xi, met senior officials at the Interior Ministry early this month to try block the event.
But the Thai officials told him Bangkok could not take legal action against Falun Gong members even if Beijing felt that the planned gathering might violate Chinese laws.

"China softens rhetoric on Falun Gong rank-and-file"

(Reuters, February 20, 2001)

BEIJING - China appeared to soften the tone of its fierce anti-Falun Gong propaganda campaign on Tuesday, with a Xinhua news agency commentary urging leniency for rank-and-file members who break with the movement.
Xinhua said the majority of followers were "compatriots and brothers and sisters" who should not suffer discrimination after leaving Falun Gong, which China banned as an "evil cult" in 1999.
"Former members of the cult who have woken up must not be looked down upon by their work units, the society or their families," the state agency said.
"Students who were expelled from school for practising Falun Gong should be allowed to return to school," it said.
The commentary said China had helped 98 percent of followers break with the group. Falun Gong had once boasted 60 million members inside China, but the government said it had two million at most. It was not immediately clear if the statement issued late on Tuesday marked a change in policy or merely a shift of rhetoric at a time when China's harsh crackdown on Falun Gong has come under intensified criticism for reported human rights violations.
A delegation of International Olympics Committee inspectors will begin a pivotal four-day survey of Beijing on Wednesday to see if the Chinese capital is fit to host the 2008 Games.
China has long maintained that it has punished only Falun Gong leaders who organised a series of protests against the Communist Party in 1999 which triggered the crackdown.
But ordinary followers who have protested on Beijing's Tiananmen Square against the ban have suffered beatings at the hands of police and, in many cases, were stripped of their jobs and state-owned housing, members have said.
Xinhua repeated China's accusation that Western adversaries were behind the homegrown Chinese spiritual movement and vowed to continue battling "stubborn Falun Gong elements."
"The majority of these followers were unaware of the real purpose of the cult leader and unclear about the background and plots of the anti-China forces in the West who are supporting and using Falun Gong," the commentary said.
Xinhua said the anti-Falun Gong campaign targeted "backbone elements, the handful of wire-pullers, plotters and organisers with political motives who want to make trouble, as well as stubborn Falun Gong elements who are continuing their illegal activities."
China ratcheted up its campaign against Falun Gong a month ago, when five purported Falun Gong adherents set themselves afire in Tiananmen Square. One was a 12-year-old girl. One woman, the girl's mother, died.
Falun Gong spokespeople have denied that the five were members of the movement and insisted that suicide ran against its teachings.

"Religion Chief Brands Falun Gong"

by Helen Luk (Associated Press, February 21, 2001)

HONG KONG - China's religious affairs chief called the Falun Gong meditation group a ``poisonous tumor'' during a visit to Hong Kong, prompting fears Tuesday that Hong Kong's mainstream religions also could come under attack by Beijing.
Ye Xiaowen, head of the State Administration's Religious Affairs Office, suggested Monday that Hong Kong strip Falun Gong of its local registration - a tactic backed by pro-Beijing newspapers and politicians who accuse the group of mounting an attack against the Chinese government.
Pro-democracy forces argue that Hong Kong must be allowed to say what it wants. The issue could become one of the biggest tests of Hong Kong's freedoms of speech and religion since it reverted from British to Chinese sovereignty in July 1997.
Though outlawed in China, where the government has been waging a 19-month crackdown on the spiritual movement, Falun Gong is legal in Hong Kong, and leaders in Hong Kong have protested Beijing's often-violent tactics.
While the Hong Kong government has not yet indicated it was willing to act against Falun Gong, Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa recently labeled the group a ``cult'' in an echo of Beijing's stance.
Representatives of several faiths told lawmakers in a hearing Tuesday that they fear they could be next.
``I'm worried about what our chief executive said,'' Roman Catholic Bishop Joseph Zen said. ``He used 'evil cult.' That's really serious.''
On Monday, Ye - the highest-ranking Chinese official to speak out against the Falun Gong in Hong Kong, likened the group to a poppy flower, the source of opium. Like the poppy, beneath the Falun Gong's claims of being apolitical it is ``extremely poisonous,'' he said at Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Hong Kong Falun Gong spokeswoman Hui Yee-han said Tuesday that there was no need for China's religious affairs chief to get involved because Falun Gong is a ``method of cultivation'' and not a religion.
``We don't put up disguises,'' Hui said by telephone.
Hong Kong leaders said they feared Ye's comments would push Tung to act against Falun Gong as well.
``Do we have to wait until someone or many people die because of their religious beliefs before making a decision to replace a religion?'' Sik Hin-hung of the Hong Kong Buddhists Association asked legislators Tuesday. ``A responsible government should take precautions before the disaster comes.''
Hong Kong government spokesman Stephen Lam said all groups must follow Chinese law.
``On this basis, the government will observe closely the activities of the Falun Gong in Hong Kong and will not allow anyone to abuse Hong Kong's freedoms and tolerance to affect public peace and order in Hong Kong or on the mainland,'' Lam said in a statement.

"Thailand clears Falungong meeting in Bangkok"

(AFP, February 20, 2001)

BANGKOK -Thailand will not ban a controversial meeting of some 500 Falungong practitioners due to take place in April, Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai said Tuesday.
Surakiart said Thailand will consider requests by members of the spiritual sect to meet here on the condition that they do not use it as an opportunity to attack China.
"We will tell them what kind of activities they can undertake and which ones they cannot," he told reporters.
"But legal action will be taken if they violate the agreement," Surakiart added.
The Falungong has yet to make a formal request for permission to gather in Bangkok, he said.
Thai police chief General Pornsak Durongkaviboon said officers were keeping a close watch on the activities of Falungong members in Thailand.
Pornsak stressed that Thailand does not have a law banning the group from the country, but urged the sect not to hold a meeting in Thailand.
"They should not hold the meeting here if it is not necessary," he said.
"We want to keep good relations with China," Pornsak added.
The Thai-Chinese community and Buddhist associations recently called on the government to prevent such a meeting from going ahead here.
"Falungong is an evil cult. Their presence here will destabilise Thai society," said Norrarat Tangpakorn, president of the Thai-Chinese Journalists' Welfare Foundation.
The Thai foreign ministry said last week that China had lodged an official protest with the embassy in Beijing over the upcoming conference, which would be attended by both Thai and overseas Falungong practitioners.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao said China hopes foreign nations and governments will be vigilant against hosting the activities of the Falungong cult, which he said would bring serious harm to local governments, and "make the right decision."
A spokesman for the Falungong movement in Thailand, Noppadol Ekbutr, said the conference was organised in good faith, and that it would be open to the public, including the press and government officials.
"The theme of the meeting is an exchange of views and experiences among us and it will have nothing to do with politics at all," he said.
The group says there are about 1,000 Falungong followers in Thailand, who hold regular sessions in parks around Bangkok to practise the movement's trademark breathing and exercise routines.

"HK Religious Groups Slam China's Religious Chief's Remarks"

(AP, February 20, 2001)

HONG KONG) -- China's religious affairs chief fueled the controversy over Falun Gong's activities by coming here and calling the sect a "poisonous tumor," and mainstream religions expressed fears Tuesday that they, too, could come under attack. Ye Xiaowen, the head of the State Administration's Religious Affairs Office, suggested Monday that Hong Kong could strip Falun Gong of its registration as a local organization - a tactic being urged by pro-Beijing newspapers and politicians.
The Hong Kong government has not yet indicated it was willing to act against Falun Gong, although Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa recently labeled the group a "cult." Representatives of several faiths told lawmakers in a hearing Tuesday they fear they could be next.
"I'm worried about what our chief executive said," Roman Catholic Bishop Joseph Zen said. "He used `evil cult.' That's really serious."
Beijing aggravated concerns it will push Tung to act against Falun Gong when Ye appeared Monday at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and reiterated much of Beijing's line on the sect banned in mainland China as an "evil cult."
Ye is the highest-ranking Chinese official to attack Falun Gong in Hong Kong, where the group remains legal and has been protesting Beijing's often-violent crackdown on the mainland.
Hong Kong Falun Gong spokeswoman Hui Yee-han said Tuesday there was no need for China's religious affairs chief to get involved, because Falun Gong is a "method of cultivation" and not a religion.
Hui said Ye was merely repeating Beijing's propaganda, instead of rationally and objectively discussing the issue.
Falun Gong has angered Beijing through Hong Kong demonstrations where followers demand the right to practice freely on the mainland and an end to alleged torture-killings of followers by Chinese security forces.
With pro-Beijing forces insisting Falun Gong be muzzled, and pro-democracy forces arguing just as vigorously that Hong Kong must be allowed to say what it wants, the issue has emerged as potentially one of the biggest tests of Hong Kong's freedoms of speech and religion since it reverted from British to Chinese sovereignty in July 1997.

"Rights group says Macau Falun follower held in China"

(Reuters, February 20, 2001)

HONG KONG - China has charged a Macau-based follower of the Falun Gong spiritual movement, banned on the mainland, with "inciting to subvert state power", a Hong Kong human rights group said on Tuesday.
Zhang Yuhui was arrested in adjoining Zhuhai in southern China on December 18 last year when Chinese President Zhang Zemin was visiting Macau, the Information Center for Human Rights & Democracy said in a statement.
Zhang, 36, is a mainland Chinese living in the autonomous Chinese city of Macau where Falun Gong is legal. Portugal ran Macau for 450 years before it reverted to China in December 1999.
The information group quoted unidentified "informed sources" as saying Zhang had been arrested for spreading pro-Falun Gong remarks on the Internet.
Last October, Beijing launched new Internet laws, one of which bans the use of the Web for "evil cult" activities, the Hong Kong group said.
Just before Macau's 1999 handover, Zhang had been detained in Zhuhai for three months for releasing articles supportive of Falun Gong through China-based and overseas Websites.
The information centre said southern China's Guangdong province recently took new steps to crack down on the mainland activities of Hong Kong and Macau practitioners.
Hong Kong and Macau followers engaging in Falun Gong activity in mainland China would be sent to jail or labour camps just as are their mainland counterparts, the information centre said.
The authorities have also stepped up investigation of the links between practitioners on the mainland and those in Hong Kong and Macau, and take strict action against the mainland adherents with such links, the group said.
It said it had learnt that if Jiang visited Hong Kong in May, the movement's believers from Hong Kong, Southeast Asia and the United State would stage anti-Jiang protests in the territory.
Falun Gong, a mixture of Taoism, Buddhism and traditional Chinese physical exercises, has been outlawed in China where it has been accused of trying to overthrow the government.

"Bishop warns treatment given to Falun Gong could extend to Church"

("EWTN News," February 20, 2001)

HONG KONG - The coadjutor bishop of Hong Kong and local missionaries have said they are alarmed by growing restrictions on religious freedom in the former British territory which is now controlled by Communist China.
In a speech on February 8, Tung Chee-hwa, governor of the former colony, described the Falun Gong movement as an "evil cult." Tung was commenting on recent episodes in Beijing's Tiananmen Square when members of the sect set themselves on fire. The governor added that he will not let anyone abuse the freedom and tolerance which exist in Hong Kong, although he rejects the idea of promulgating an anti-subversion law in the territory. Falun Gong is a spiritual meditation movement that gained the attention of Communist authorities when movement members organized protests against restrictions.
"To call the Falun Gong an evil cult is alarming, not only for the movement but also for the Church," Coadjutor Bishop Joseph Zen wrote in an article in the Sunday Examiner, the Hong Kong diocese's Catholic weekly. "There is no commonly accepted definition of an 'evil cult'. An organization is labeled 'evil' only if it teaches against some important commonly accepted moral standards: restriction of personal freedom through physical or psychological manipulation of family values or endangering one's own or others' lives. The attempted suicides in Tiananmen Square seem to be surrounded by question marks. Falun Gong has declared that suicide is against their doctrine. If one identifies criticism of the government with evil, then the underground Catholic Church might be in danger of being branded an evil cult as well."
Regarding the situation of the Catholic Church in mainland China, Bishop Zen recalls that "any kind of resistance and protest, even though peaceful, is not allowed in mainland China. Since Falun Gong chose to protest in a very public manner and the government had underestimated their strength, the sect was declared evil. The underground Catholic Church has escaped such treatment because their protest has only been low key and the international prestige of the Catholic Church cannot be ignored. But what has been done to the former could easily be extended to suppress the latter," warns the Catholic leader.
"If Falun Gong is accused of causing disorder in Hong Kong society, just because of its peaceful protests, then such a label can be easily applied tomorrow to the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission, to the diocese. and to many Christian bodies," he said. Bishop Zen ends by requesting that Tung amend his statement or accept that he owes the Church some reassurance.
The Hong Kong media gave ample space to Bishop Zen's comments. On February 18 in its Sunday edition, the South China Morning Post, Hong Kong's English daily with the widest circulation, criticized the attitude of the bishop.
Missionaries in Hong Kong say the SAR government is closing in on the Catholic Church and her activity in education and social assistance. In December, the government accused Catholics schools of fraud for using public structures, rented as schools, for religious and not educational purposes. On January 30 the Minister of Education, in an official letter, warned the Grant Schools Council, which comprises 22 mostly Catholic and Protestant schools not to be too conservative in their education system.
Moreover the Hong Kong Women's Christian Council, a Protestant organization, risks being removed from the list of charitable organizations and losing tax privileges, on charges of political activities.

"China slams U.S. envoy for remarks on HK freedoms"

(Reuters, February 20, 2001)

HONG KONG - Chinese officials lashed out on Tuesday at the United States' top envoy in Hong Kong for expressing concern over the erosion of the territory's freedom.
"Hong Kong's affairs are the internal matter of China. It is totally inappropriate for Mr. Michael Klosson, as U.S. Consul General in Hong Kong, to make irresponsible comments," a statement from the Chinese Foreign Ministry office in Hong Kong said.
The ticking off follows a speech Klosson gave in Houston on February 15 when he cited recent events he felt warranted particular attention.
"Some events over the eighteen months that I've been in Hong Kong, coupled with several earlier, raise concerns which highlight that Hong Kong's situation merits continued attention from the Unites States and other major partners which have interests at stake," Klosson told a meeting of the Asia Society in Texas.
He singled out Hong Kong's handling of the Falun Gong spiritual movement and referred to remarks made by Chinese President Jiang Zemin last December that the local media ought to play a more positive role.
"These remarks prompted concerns that China was calling for limitations on the exercise of fundamental freedoms in Hong Kong," Klosson said.
A former British colony, Hong Kong was promised a high degree of autonomy when it returned to Chinese rule in 1997, but there has been renewed fears and debates of late over the limits of Hong Kong's freedom.
This was partially prompted when local officials said they would not allow the territory to become a base for the Falun Gong, a group that is legal in Hong Kong but outlawed and characterised as an "evil cult" in mainland China.
Local authorities have not taken further action against Falun Gong, saying they would be keeping a close watch on their activites.

"China slams study alleging psychiatric abuse"

(Reuters, February 20, 2001)

BEIJING - Beijing dismissed as "totally groundless and unacceptable" on Tuesday a recent Western study alleging China uses mental asylums to incarcerate government opponents, including members of the banned Falun Gong group.
"Such allegations are totally groundless and unacceptable," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao said of a report by a British academic. The study said Chinese political abuse of psychiatry might exceed that of the former Soviet Union.
"There is no evidence to support it," Zhu told a news conference.
China, which faces increasing criticism this year over its drive to eradicate the Falun Gong spiritual movement, last week also dismissed a report by the human rights group Amnesty International accusing it of widespread torture of prisoners.
RESURGENCE
British academic Robin Munro, in a study published in the Columbia Journal of Asian Law, said research of Chinese psychiatric literature since the 1950s and case studies show a "longstanding record of the muse of psychiatry for politically repressive purposes."
The 130-page "Judicial Psychiatry in China and its Political Abuses" says China's programme "resembles in all key respects that of the former Soviet Union" and may exceed it.
Munro, a senior research fellow at the Law Department and Centre for Chinese Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, says China's network of police mental asylums was copied from the former Soviet Union.
The study says China's arrested political dissidents can be "prime candidates" for incarceration in a national network of 20 top secret "Ankang" (Peace and Happiness) mental institutions run directly by the Ministry of Public Security.
It details many cases of political dissidents and labour activists alleged to have been held in mental hospitals and forced to take psychiatric drugs.
The practice appeared to have diminished in the early 1990s. But it has undergone a resurgence in recent years, largely as a result of the crackdown on Falun Gong, which combines meditation and exercises with a doctrine rooted loosely in Buddhist and Taoist teachings, Munro wrote.
The study cites reports from overseas adherents of Falun Gong that hundreds of its practitioners have been forcibly medicated or sent to mental hospitals.
China has repeatedly denied abuse of detained followers of Falun Gong which it banned as an "evil cult" in 1999.
The government has acknowledged a handful of deaths in custody but said the people were old, sick or had committed suicide.

"China charges Macau Falun Gong follower -HK group"

(Reuters, February 20, 2001)

HONG KONG - China has charged a Macau-based follower of the Falun Gong spiritual movement, banned on the mainland, with "inciting to subvert state power," a Hong Kong human rights group said on Tuesday.
Zhang Yuhui was arrested in adjoining Zhuhai in southern China on December 18 last year when Chinese President Zhang Zemin was visiting Macau, the Information Center for Human Rights & Democracy said in a statement.
Zhang, 36, is a mainland Chinese living in the autonomous Chinese city of Macau where Falun Gong is legal. Portugal ran Macau for 450 years before before it reverted to China in December 1999.
The information group quoted unidentified "informed sources" as saying Zhang had been arrested for spreading pro-Falun Gong remarks on the Internet.
Last October, Beijing launched new Internet laws, one of which bans the use of the Web for "evil cult" activities, the Hong Kong group said.
Just before Macau's 1999 handover, Zhang had been detained in Zhuhai for three months for releasing articles supportive of Falun Gong through China-based and overseas Websites.
The information centre said southern China's Guangdong province recently took new steps to crack down on the mainland activities of Hong Kong and Macau practitioners.
Hong Kong and Macau followers engaging in Falun Gong activity in mainland China would be sent to jail or labour camps just as are their mainland counterparts, the information centre said.
The authorities have also stepped up investigation of the links of practitioners on the mainland with those in Hong Kong and Macau, and take strict action against the mainland adherents with such links, the group said.
It said it had learnt that if Jiang visited Hong Kong in May, the movement's believers from Hong Kong, Southeast Asia and the United State would stage anti-Jiang protests in the territory.
Falun Gong, a mixture of Taoism and Buddhism and traditional Chinese physical exercises, has been outlawed in China where it has been accused of trying to overthrow the government.

"Thai Falun Gong meeting shelved after pressure"

by Nopporn Wong-Anan (Reuters, February 20, 2001)

BANGKOK - A group of Falun Gong practioners in Thailand said on Tuesday they were postponing a proposed meeting in Bangkok in April because of opposition from Thai officials and Beijing.
Falun Gong practitioners from around the world had been invited to the two-day meeting from April 21-22.
But Nopphdol Eakabuse, one of the meeting's organisers, told Reuters the gathering was being postponed due to "a lot of pressure."
"We'll have to wait until the dust settles," he said.
Falun Gong, based on elements of Taoism, Buddhism and traditional Chinese meditation and exercises, was banned by the Chinese leadership as an "evil cult" in 1999.
Thailand said on Tuesday it had not received any official request for permission to hold the meeting, but hinted that permission would anyway be witheld.
Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai told reporters he would not allow any activities directed against Thailand's neighbours to take place in the country.
"We do not allow anybody to use Thai soil to hold any political activities," Surakiart told reporters.
"If their request arrives, we will tell them what they can and cannot do, and we will prosecute them if they break the agreement."
A senior foreign ministry official told Reuters the comments amounted to a rejection of the meeting.
"If you read between the lines of what minister Surakiart said, the answer is a red right, not a green light," he said.
Asked whether the group had planned to protest against the Chinese government during the meeting, Nopphdol said: "We didn't have such intentions."
Thai officials had voiced concerns that the planned meeting would upset Beijing and hurt Thailand's interests.
The Bangkok Post newspaper reported on Tuesday that China's charge d'affaires in Thailand, Chai Xi, met senior officials at the Interior Ministry early this month to try block the event.
But the Thai officials told him Bangkok could not take legal action against Falun Gong members even if Beijing felt that the planned gathering might violate Chinese laws.

"China puts Falun Gong followers in hospital"

("BBC News," February 19, 2001)

A new report says China has stepped up the practice of imprisoning dissidents in psychiatric hospitals to deal with the outlawed Falungong spiritual group.
The report in the American publication, the Columbia Journal of Asian Law, says around 100 known Falungong followers have been detained in psychiatric institutions in the past 18 months, and it's believed there are several hundred similar cases.
The author, Robin Munro said this marks a sharp increase in the use of psychiatric detention which sidesteps the need for legal procedures and can be used to hold people indefinitely.
Mr Munro says China has used high-security psychiatric hospitals extensively as a means of suppressing dissent since the 1950s, in a practice copied from the Soviet Union. A group of doctors has begun a global campaign to condemn psychiatric abuses in China.

"Falun Gong a Test For Hong Kong"

by Philip P. Pan ("Washington Post," February 19, 2001)

HONG KONG -- There are perhaps 500 members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement in this city of nearly 7 million, and many of them are not very active. The group has no formal office, and uses as its headquarters a small apartment that belongs to a member who happens to be away. When adherents get together, they spend a lot of time practicing breathing exercises.
Until recently, hardly anyone here knew they existed.
But as China ratchets up its campaign to crush Falun Gong, the group's tiny Hong Kong branch has emerged as the latest and most serious test of Beijing's promise to let this former British colony govern itself for 50 years.
China banned Falun Gong in 1999, describing it as an "evil cult" and a threat to the authority of the ruling Communist Party. But even as the government arrested thousands in a nationwide crackdown, it left the Hong Kong practitioners alone.
Now, after five purported Falun Gong members set themselves on fire in Tiananmen Square last month, Beijing has launched a new blitz against the movement -- and is urging action against believers in Hong Kong.
"This is make or break for 'one country, two systems,' " said Martin Lee, leader of Hong Kong's Democratic Party, referring to the policy under which China agreed to grant the city a high degree of autonomy after the end of British rule in 1997.
"Everyone agrees that the Falun Gong people have not committed any crime here," Lee said. "If in spite of that, Hong Kong caves in to Beijing pressure and either bans them or restricts them, the whole world will know that Hong Kong does just what Beijing tells it to do."
China has described the Hong Kong Falun Gong members as agitators conspiring with China's enemies around the globe to establish an outpost from which to infiltrate the mainland and subvert the Communist Party.
Several members of China's legislature and pro-Beijing newspapers have urged the Hong Kong government to outlaw the group. Other influential pro-China figures have called on the city to pass a sedition law, a step many fear would open the door to the arrest of anyone who displeases Beijing.
China has applied pressure on Hong Kong before, but never in such a forceful, direct and public way.
"It's ridiculous," said Kan Hung-cheung, a soft-spoken restaurateur who is a Falun Gong leader and a former writer for one of the city's pro-China newspapers. "We're just 500 people. How can we endanger national security? They're making a big deal out of nothing."
In his first remarks on the issue last week, Hong Kong's chief executive, Tung Chee-hwa, said Falun Gong bore "some characteristics of an evil cult" and promised to closely monitor the group. But Tung, who was appointed by Beijing, stopped short of threatening to strip the movement of its legal status.
Michael DeGolyer, director of an academic project that surveys attitudes about Hong Kong's return to China, said he was optimistic that Tung had found a way to "nod to the emperor" while preserving Hong Kong's autonomy.
"At the moment, I'm pretty encouraged that we've backed away from the brink," he said. "Given the intense pressure, and the virtual hysteria that the central government has launched nationwide against Falun Gong, it's a good sign that good sense still prevailed here."
Tsang Yok-sing, chairman of Hong Kong's largest pro-Beijing party, also praised the government, and added that Falun Gong should exercise similar restraint and avoid provoking Beijing with any high-profile protests. "The crisis isn't over, but I think the Falun Gong followers in Hong Kong understand the situation," he said.
But others said Falun Gong should be free to criticize the government as loudly as it wants, and they criticized Tung for pledging to keep a "close eye" on the group when it has done nothing illegal.
"Everybody has a right to do what Falun Gong is doing, so why are they a cult? Why are we monitoring them?" asked Rose Wu, director of the Hong Kong Christian Institute. "We do exactly what Falun Gong does. We protest, we criticize the government, we exercise our rights. Does this mean we're next?"
Some see the uncertainty about what will happen to Falun Gong as the latest sign that Hong Kong is losing its special status in China as a place where the rule of law prevails.
Last month, concerns about the independence of Hong Kong's judiciary were renewed when Tung's government called on the territory's highest court to seek Beijing's guidance in an immigration case. China overruled the court in a similar case in 1999, sending the signal that Beijing -- and not the judges -- is now the ultimate arbiter of the law here.
The abrupt resignation last month of Hong Kong's No. 2 official, Anson Chan, also worried many. Chan was seen as a forceful advocate of the territory's autonomy and had expressed concern about Hong Kong becoming a place where Beijing-friendly businesses are given special treatment.
Margaret Ng, a lawyer and member of Hong Kong's legislature, said Beijing's attack on Falun Gong adherents here should serve as a reminder of how fragile the city's freedoms are.
"The only thing that protects us is political will," she said. "The moment they want to suppress Falun Gong or any other critics in Hong Kong, they have all the apparatus of the law to do it."
However, many Hong Kong residents consider Falun Gong's mix of Buddhism, Taoism and traditional Chinese breathing exercises to be on the fringe, and might not be alarmed if the group were outlawed.
Eden Woon, director of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, said he believed "one country, two systems" would survive. "It's a difficult issue, but there are always going to be gray areas, and the Falun Gong issue is in one of those areas," he said.
But others said the image of Hong Kong police officers arresting members of such a movement for criticizing Beijing would frighten the public.
"Some people say they're weird and maybe even a cult. People don't really support their beliefs," said Law Yuk-kai, director of Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor. "But I think people also understand we need to support their rights. They understand if one group can be targeted this way, then so can others."

"China group asks IOC to press for leaders' release" (Zhong Gong)

(Reuters, Feb. 19, 2001)

HONG KONG - China's banned Zhong Gong meditation group issued an appeal on Monday to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to press Beijing to release its jailed leaders, a Hong Kong-based human rights group said.
The appeal comes as Beijing gets ready for a visit by an IOC inspection team from Wednesday, which will help the IOC decide which city will host the 2008 Olympics.
Beijing, Osaka, Toronto, Paris and Istanbul are vying to host the event.
In a statement, the Information Centre for Human Rights & Democracy said the Zhong Gong was pressing for the release of its jailed leaders, including Yan Chanjuan.
A string of leading Zhong Gong members were sent to labour camps last year for "inciting the subversion of state power."
Zhong Gong, like the better known Falun Gong, has been banned in China as an "evil cult" which uses "feudal superstition to deceive the masses."
Since September 1999, some 600 leading Zhong Gong members have been detained and 3,000 of its bases and branches have been closed, the centre said.
The appeal comes as Beijing renews a crackdown on the Falun Gong after recent fiery suicide attempts in Tiananmen Square and 18 months of protests by members of the outlawed group.