Hong Kong’s Political Autonomy Withstands Beijing’s Ban on Falun Gong

Saturday marked one of the strongest tests yet for the uncertain political experiment this territory lives under.

With outward calm, Hong Kong passed.

On a bright, sunny afternoon, accompanied by only enough police to keep them from getting tangled with crowds of midwinter shoppers, an estimated 900 members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement marched quietly along a two-mile route through central Hong Kong, many decked out in their distinctive bright yellow shirts. They carried pink, orange and blue balloons along with signs calling for the government in Beijing to stop its persecution of the group.

Beijing’s ban on the Falun Gong 18 months ago, followed by its unusually harsh crackdown amid allegations of torture, has made the group’s high-profile, two-day gathering here a trial of Hong Kong’s autonomous political system.

That autonomy was guaranteed as part of the deal that transferred the former British colony to Chinese sovereignty 3 1/2 years ago under a formula known as “one country, two systems.”

Although Beijing’s shadow constantly looms over Hong Kong political life--and a sense of nervous uncertainty remains about the longer-term viability of the formula--Saturday’s very public Falun Gong demonstration was seen by many here as a sign that the experiment is working far better than many had initially thought.

“Three and one-half years ago, people were leaving to make sure they had an Australian, Canadian or some alternative passport,” noted David Dodwell, a longtime Hong Kong resident who does economic and political consulting for Golin/Harris International Ltd. “No one cared about the environment or a pension system because they didn’t think they were going to be around.”

But a pension plan for residents was recently introduced, and today air pollution is a hot-button political issue. During the campaign leading up to September’s Legislative Council elections, concern about political meddling from Beijing was hardly an issue.

To be sure, there have been worrying developments, including a public tirade against the Hong Kong media by Chinese President Jiang Zemin and a tendency toward self-censorship on the part of the local press. Just 24 hours before Falun Gong’s march began, Hong Kong also lost one of its most respected and talented political figures, Chief Secretary Anson Chan, amid circumstances still unclear. She resigned after a series of differences with Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa. Beijing had accused her of giving him less than wholehearted support.

And despite the outwardly relaxed atmosphere of Saturday’s Falun Gong gathering, there were indications that the event had forced Hong Kong’s regional government to walk a very narrow political line.

Protest organizers said they had agreed to a Hong Kong government request that marchers carry no signs with slogans casting Jiang in a negative light. They also confirmed that in return for the government’s permission to meet today in the City Hall complex, they had agreed not to display provocative photos of bodies of members who Falun Gong claims were tortured to death on the mainland.

Twelve of the several hundred Falun Gong members traveling to the conference from abroad were refused entry by immigration authorities at Hong Kong International Airport, including three U.S. residents, organizers said. They said one Chinese resident of Australia who was turned back had been jailed for eight months last year on the mainland after being arrested for practicing Falun Gang slow-motion exercises in public.

Hong Kong’s Department of Immigration declined to comment on the incidents, and Falun Gong spokeswoman Sophie Xiao said organizers had appealed for a review of the entry refusals.

Last month in Macao, another former European colony that was granted a large degree of political autonomy upon its 1999 return to Chinese sovereignty, authorities turned back many Falun Gong members trying to enter from Hong Kong. They also harassed local members who tried to perform the movement’s ritual exercises during celebrations marking the first anniversary of the territory’s hand-over.

There seemed no hint of confrontation during Saturday’s activities in Hong Kong, however.

After walking through the city, the Falun Gong members gathered for a silent vigil in front of the Chinese Government Liaison Office, protesting on behalf of 119 people whom the group claims Beijing authorities have tortured to death for attempting to follow the movement’s tenets in public.

A small number of the demonstrators also delivered petitions asking the Beijing government to halt attacks on Falun Gong members and lift its ban on the movement.

“We want to clear the name of Falun Gong,” Xiao said.

The Falun Gong movement was founded in 1992 and draws on traditional Chinese religion and philosophy. Its followers believe that moral strength comes through the study of universal principles based on truthfulness, benevolence and forbearance and that the body is energized through a series of slow exercises and meditation.

The movement is generally believed to have about 2 million adherents, but Falun Gong leaders claim that the number is far greater.

Since it was banned on the mainland in July 1999, its members have been subject to one of the broadest, harshest crackdowns conducted against a specific group since the pro-democracy student movement was crushed in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square 11 1/2 years ago.

On New Year’s Day, security police in Beijing detained hundreds of Falun Gong followers who dared to defy the ban, beating one so badly that the ground around the point of his arrest was splattered with blood.

The weekend gathering in Hong Kong has drawn Falun Gong members from 22 countries for what organizers have labeled an “experience-sharing conference.”

Although the group has held two previous meetings here, the current one unfolds in an atmosphere of unusual tension--a tension stoked not only by Beijing’s harsh actions but by efforts by the movement and its well-oiled public relations arm to use the gathering to focus as much media attention as possible on the crackdown.

Korean-born Swedish Falun Gong follower Bolette Ebertz said she made the long journey to attend the Hong Kong conference for one reason: “I wanted to support those suffering in China.”