4 June 2001 / 02:43 AM
WE ARE facing a momentous choice. Correct that. Mr Tung Chee-hwa, Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, is facing a momentous choice: whether or not to bring in laws that will curtail or forbid the activities of the Falun Gong.
Mr Tung's decision - and it appears it will be his alone - will become one of those benchmark tests on how Hong Kong is judged by the rest of the world in the first years following the end of British colonial rule.
Why is it so important? After all, the [group], [...], has only about 500 members in the SAR. It is nigh on impossible to find any examples of where Falun Gong members have been in breach of the law. Indeed, police officers and senior government officials privately commend the placid behavior of the [group] during the Fortune Global Forum last month.
Nevertheless, from the comments emanating from Mr Tung and his closest advisers it is possible to detect a hardening of the heart regarding the [group] that is banned on the mainland yet continues practicing here. [...]
The passage last week of an anti-xx law in France seemingly would add weight to the SAR government's case - should it be presented in the next few weeks before the rise of the Legislative Council for the summer vacation. France, it must be said, was influenced by [...]. Which is not to say that the legislation was not without its pitfalls and controversies: among the 170 or so organizations initially proscribed in the legislation was the Southern Baptist Church (famous members: Bill Clinton and Al Gore). Those sorts of hiccups would without doubt beset any legislation introduced here. That's why the Catholic Church is so perturbed by the threat of such laws.
[...]
[...] We would urge Mr Tung to stay his hand: he should neither bow to pressure from Beijing nor be influenced by laws drafted in another country to deal with another kind of threat.
There is no sign in Hong Kong that Falun Gong is bent on indoctrination or extortion on any scale. Should there ever be such evidence, Hong Kong is well enough protected by its criminal laws to deal with such a threat. Secondly, the Falun Gong's prohibition in China is not a reason to ban it here. If Falun Gong is banned here, the outside world will infer that one country worked, two systems failed. So far, there's no reason to say that.
Let's keep it that way.
There's no evidence that Hong Kong people are overly concerned [...] - the Falun Gong. Should the [group] be proscribed, that may change. The public, religious and political - as well as the international and commercial - reactions may be substantial.
Currently, three or four diplomatic missions are quietly pressing the government to draw back from anti-xx laws. They fear for Hong Kong's reputation if there is a ban. [...]
http://hk-imail.singtao.com/inews/public/article_v.cfm?articleid=23331&intca tid=5
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Category: Falun Dafa in the Media
