BBC Monitoring: Hong Kong's Falun Gong adherents write to US leader to raise concerns with Tung

07/11/2001

Hong Kong's Falun Gong practitioners have written to [US] President [George W] Bush, urging him to reflect their concerns to [chief executive] Mr Tung [Chee-hwa]. In the letter, the practitioners accuse Mr Tung of branding Falun Gong as an [Jiang Zemin government's slanderous term omitted], saying the chief executive's remark was made to please Beijing. They say although the SAR [Special Autonomous Region] government has no plans to legislate against cults for the time being, they fear that the administration may introduce anti-cult laws if Mr Tung is reelected as the chief executive.

The practitioners told President Bush that Mr Tung and government officials refused to have a dialogue with them. They have asked Mr Bush to relay their worries to the chief executive.