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China keeping close tabs on Taiwan's Falun Gong

A list of Taiwanese Falun Gong practitioners compiled by China's intelligence led to these practitioners' detention and deportation at Hong Kong International Airport in the days leading up to the territory's handover anniversary, Taiwanese national security officials said.

Hundreds of Taiwanese Falun Gong practitioners planned to go to Hong Kong to take part in a demonstration held by the territory's democracy activists on July 1 -- the 10th year anniversary of the former British colony's return to China.

Despite their legal travel documents, Taiwanese Falun Gong followers and supporters were expelled by Hong Kong airport police after their arrival.

Taiwanese national security officials said that specific groups or individuals such as the Falun Gong in Taiwan have become targets of Chinese intelligence gathering.

A female Falun Gong practitioner told the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times' sister paper) that Cathay Pacific Airlines employees told her "you may have a problem entering [Hong Kong]" as she was checking in at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport.

Despite the warning, she insisted on boarding the flight to Hong Kong as she had a valid Hong Kong visa. She had applied for the visa and bought the airline ticket alone -- not with other Falun Gong practitioners. However, upon her arrival in Hong Kong, the immigration officer told her to go to another room when she presented her passport and visa.

The immigration officer did not explain the reason when she asked, she said.

She was refused entry, with no reason cited, wrapped up in a bomb blanket and sent on a flight back to Taiwan, she told the Liberty Times.

Meanwhile, Taiwanese Cabinet spokesman Shieh Jhy-wey (謝志偉) said that the government would discuss the issue with Hong Kong, in response to questions about the inhuman treatment of Taiwanese nationals in Hong Kong.

Although the national security officials believed that Hong Kong's Falun Gong list had to do with leaks within Falun Gong groups, they warned that China's intelligence gathering was not limited to Falun Gong practitioners.

All key figures and facilities of Taiwan could be targets of China's intelligence gathering, they said.
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