Posted on 06/28/2002 6:02:13 AM PDT by Stand Watch Listen
Pacific Rim Bureau (CNSNews.com) - Just days before Hong Kong marks the fifth anniversary of its reversion to Chinese rule, its government is adopting mainland-like measures against dissidents and restricting freedom of movement and expression in the semi-autonomous territory.
Six members of the Falun Gong sect - which is outlawed in China - have been barred from entering Hong Kong, even though the group is legal in Hong Kong.
A Falun Gong spokeswoman said three were Australians, one was an American woman and two were from Macao, another Chinese territory.
The U.S. citizen, Bihan Dan, 68, was detained for eight hours before she was carried out to a New York-bound plane, the movement's U.S.-based information center said.
Hong Kong officials this week also refused entry permission to leading Chinese pro-democracy activist, Harry Wu, deporting him back to the U.S. on Monday.
The U.S. consulate-general complained to the Hong Kong government about the step against Wu, who is an American citizen. U.S. nationals do not need visas to enter Hong Kong.
The Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said Wu had been told he was being denied entry for "security reasons."
Another U.S. citizen, China expert Perry Link, was detained for questioning before being allowed entry. The Princeton University professor edited a book banned in China about the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre of pro-democracy activists.
Both Wu and Perry were scheduled to address a series of talks arranged by the Foreign Correspondents' Club on changes in the territory since the handover to China.
The former British colony returned to Chinese rule on July 1, 1997, under an agreement which promised the territory could continue its way of life and capitalist system for at least another 50 years.
Chinese President Jiang Zemin is due to visit Hong Kong for Monday's anniversary ceremonies.
Also on July 1, Hong Kong chief executive Tung Chee-hwa begins a second five-year term in office.
Tung was not democratically elected or re-elected - he was chosen by an electoral college appointed by Beijing - and critics see him as being too willing to bow to dictates from the mainland.
Hong Kong also has a 60-member legislature, but many of its members are chosen by China-supporting groups known as "functional constituencies."
The territory's constitution provides for possible changes in the electoral system after 2007.
But in a rare public comment on Hong Kong's internal affairs, Chinese Vice Premier Qian Qichen was quoted this week as saying Beijing was happy with the system remaining unchanged.
Many in Hong Kong have also been concerned about proposed anti-subversion legislation which critics fear will be used against pro-democracy campaigners or Falun Gong adherents.
The territory's Justice Secretary, Elsie Leung, was quoted in local newspapers Friday as assuring citizens that such groups would not be targeted by the planned law.
She said public consultation would take place on the law, which was needed "to protect national security and territorial integrity."
Frank Lu of the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy in Hong Kong sounded reluctant Friday to talk about the recent actions by the authorities there.
But he confirmed there were concerns that things could "become worse" in the future, for dissidents as well as for human rights campaigners such as himself.
In the view of Dr. Paul Harris of the politics department at Hong Kong's Lingnan University, the territory's administration is both trying to prevent specific demonstrations during the takeover anniversary, and attempting to "limit political protest and opposition" more generally.
But rather than Beijing pressuring Hong Kong to take the steps, Harris said, he believed the initiative was coming from Hong Kong itself.
"I think the Hong Kong government is trying to anticipate what Beijing might want, and then acting accordingly. It's less a matter of Beijing telling Tung to crack down on dissent."
Harris added that, while the people of Hong Kong give only lukewarm support to the chief executive, they also don't generally like political protest, or anything else that they see as possibly damaging to the economy.
On the anti-subversion legislation, he said the way the government has acted against protestors of late suggested that the planned law would be "quite severe, at least in the powers it gives to the government."
E-mail a news tip to Patrick Goodenough.
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