Authorities detained and barred the entry of at least 70 followers of Falun Gong at the Hong Kong airport yesterday, including 46 supporters from Taiwan, activists said.
Those who arrived earlier in the morning from Taiwan managed to slip by authorities, but 46 others who came later in the day were stopped at the airport, said Sophie Xiao, a Hong Kong-based spokeswoman for the group.
PHOTO: TONY K. YAO, TAIPEI TIMES
Li Jin-fen (
Li flew to Hong Kong on China Airlines CI 611, which left Taipei at 2:40pm.
The 11 adherents were not even allowed to communicate by telephone, Li said. Most returned to Taiwan later yesterday evening after being forced to board flights back to Taiwan.
Li said that none of the supporters on her flight had worn any clothing that would reveal they were practitioners of Falun Gong.
Li believes that authorities may have found their names and pictures on the Internet.
Some 110 adherents from Taiwan had planned to attend the protests in China's Special Administrative Region and express their concerns about the Chinese government's efforts to destroy Falun Gong. Jiang Zemin (江澤民) is scheduled to speak at the Global Fortune Forum in Hong Kong today.
"No one has ordered us to do anything. We are looking for a chance to have peace talks with Jiang Zemin because he never listens to us," Li said.
Huang Chun-mei (
Returning to Taipei, Huang told the Taipei Times more about her experience of being detained for four hours.
After searching all of her belongings, immigration officials at Chek Lap Kok airport took her mobile phone, address book and a list of contact numbers for all of those who were in the group from Taiwan. "They also took all of my Falun Gong T-shirts," Huang said.
"I asked the officials if this was how `one country, two systems' really works." Huang said, recounting her experience. "I am not a prisoner, I just practice Falun Gong."
Officials at the airport told Huang that her search and detainment were just routine procedures, she said. Huang said that before being forced onto a returning flight to Taipei, authorities took a picture of her with a digital camera despite her protests.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Katharine Chang (
"Falun Gong is a kind of religion, China should follow global trends and show respect for religious freedom as well as human rights," Chang said.
Over the past two days, Hong Kong immigration officials have also blocked the entry of followers from the US, Britain, Australia, Japan and Singapore.
In Taiwan, the group has thousands of followers who are allowed to practice freely. Last year, Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) spoke at a large Falun Gong conference, and the group frequently purchases large advertisements that appear on the sides of city buses.
In the US, despite recent strained relations between Washington and Beijing, former president Bill Clinton was given the go-ahead to attend the Hong Kong forum. The visit raised some eyebrows because China continues to hold a US surveillance plane that made an emergency landing on Hainan Island following a collision with a Chinese fighter jet.
Condoleezza Rice, President George W. Bush's national security adviser, said Clinton had discussed his upcoming trip with her and she was certain he would do a good job
"Certainly there's no objection to the president going," Rice said on the Fox News Sunday television show. "But he's not going as an official representative in any way of the administration."
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