NY Times: Beijing's Stance Against Falun Gong [Group] Is Protested in March

c. 2001 New York Times Company

HONG KONG, Jan. 13 -- For the second time since the Falun Gong was outlawed by China in 1999, hundreds of members of the group gathered here today to protest their treatment by Beijing.

Hong Kong is the only place on Chinese soil where the Falun Gong has been allowed to practice its meditation and breathing exercises. Today about 800 members rallied with banners and wreaths in a downtown park to remember the 120 members they say have been killed by the Chinese government. ''We want to show the world that what Jiang Zemin is doing is against the law,'' said Fiona Ching, a spokeswoman for the group, referring to the Chinese president. ''We are only exercising our most basic human rights.''

Ms. Ching said the group was not seeking to make trouble in Hong Kong, which operates under a separate legal system from the mainland, albeit subject to pressure from Beijing. Yet the crowd took its grievances to the doorstep of the most potent symbol of China here, the Chinese government liaison office.

Led by 120 women dressed in white -- the traditional color for mourning in China -- members marched to the building, only to find the gates locked and no one to accept their petition.

A few police officers marched alongside the protesters, while officials in plain clothes filmed the crowd. But Falun Gong members said the atmosphere was more relaxed than at a demonstration in December 1999.

''I wasn't worried coming here,'' said Guo Jingchung, a medical technician who flew from Boston with 20 others. ''Hong Kong is the one place in China where we can speak freely.''

Still, a second spokeswoman said the government had detained 12 Falun Gong members at the Hong Kong airport, putting two Americans and one Australian on flights out of the territory. One member, Zhang Cuiying, was still being detained this afternoon, said the spokeswoman, Sophie Xiao.

Ms. Zhang has traveled extensively in recent months, recounting her experiences while in prison in China last year. She had been scheduled to speak about that here, and Ms. Xiao said she believed that by stopping her at the border, the government was showing the limits of its tolerance.

Government officials said this meeting was more sensitive than the last one because Falun Gong is renting a government-owned building for its activities. In 1999 the group rented a ballroom at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center. This year the center turned them down. Ms. Xiao said 30 local hotels had denied Falun Gong space for its meetings.

Falun Gong's Web site says that at least 50,000 members have been detained since the government outlawed the group in July 1999. According to the Web site, 114 people have died while in police custody.

Last week, China's official news media began a fresh attack, with the Communist Party newspaper, People's Daily, describing Falun Gong as a ''cheap tool'' of ''anti-China forces in the West.''

China has tolerated the meetings in Hong Kong, a former British colony that operates under the principle of ''one country, two systems.'' But Macao, a former Portuguese colony that reverted to China in 1999, rounded up Falun Gong members who tried to protest during a visit by President Jiang last month.

Hong Kong residents in the park seemed unfazed by the rally. Protests are common here, with people demonstrating against everything from the crackdown in Tiananmen Square to real estate prices.

06:17 EST January 14, 2001