Hong Kong freedoms tested by Falun Gong

When Hong Kong reverted to Chinese rule in 1997, Beijing granted Hong Kong a special status and promised to preserve its freedoms. Those freedoms have since been battered and bent, but the worst fears at the time of the handover have proved unfounded.

Until now. Falun Gong, the spiritual movement that Beijing swears to eradicate, has broken no laws in Hong Kong.

But pressure from Beijing to outlaw Falun Gong in Hong Kong is mounting, and, disturbingly, it’s gaining currency.

Tung Chee-hwa, Hong Kong’s Beijing-appointed chief executive, has branded the group an "evil cult," a term Beijing used in banning the movement, and some prominent Hong Kong officials are calling for a new subversion law to crack down on its members.

Beijing’s fear — not annoyance or even abhorrence, but fear — of what on the surface appears a harmless sect bent on health and exercise can best be understood in terms of historic cult movements of the 19th century in China, especially the Taiping Rebellion. It was crushed in 1864 after 14 years and millions of deaths.

Falun Gong members have shown themselves fearless in their defiance.

The group has accused the government of running a smear campaign, denying that recent instances of self-immolation involved its members.

It also says 143 practitioners have been killed and scores of others tortured and abused in the often-brutal crackdown.

Will this persecution spread to Hong Kong?

With the recent resignation of Hong Kong’s No. 2 administrator, Anson Chan, an outspoken defender of democratic values, the fate of Falun Gong in Hong Kong amounts to the first clear acid test for Beijing’s commitment to its promises to the former British colony.

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