AP: Falun Gong Members Protest

By The Associated Press

September 2, 2000

HONG KONG (AP) -- About 150 Falun Gong members staged a silent march in Hong Kong on Saturday to protest mainland China's crackdown on the meditation [group].

Carrying banners, they gathered at a downtown park before marching about a mile to the Central Liaison Office, Beijing's representative office in Hong Kong.

They also held up portraits of [group] members they say have been killed by Chinese authorities during the crackdown. The only sound during the march came from meditation music played on tape recorders.

Falun Gong has attracted millions of followers, most of them in China, with its combination of slow-motion exercises and philosophy drawn from Taoism, Buddhism and the often [unusual] ideas of founder Li Hongzhi.

Beijing banned Falun Gong as an evil cult last year, but the [group] remains legal in Hong Kong. Followers insist it promotes health and good citizenship.

Sharon Xu, a spokeswoman for the group in Hong Kong, said the Chinese government was believed to be intensifying its persecution of the [group] ahead of China's National Day on Oct. 1.