HONG KONG, Dec 6, 2000 -- (Agence France Presse)

Every morning at 7 a.m., Hong Kong civil servant Hui Kwok-hung can be found in his local park, practicing the slow motion exercises and deep breathing that have become synonymous with the spiritual movement Falun Gong. Across the border in mainland China, where Falun Gong has been banned and denounced by President Jiang Zemin as a [], Hui could be thrown in jail for admitting he is a follower.

The movement continues to operate legally in Hong Kong. But discreet pressure from the authorities has caused the numbers of public practitioners to dwindle in recent months. Hui is among those that refuse to bow to Beijing and he maintains that the benefits of following the group's teachings far outweigh any risk involved. "The benefit of living this way is that you will have a standard to measure your behavior and actions; truthfulness, benevolence and forbearance," he says, outlining the tenets of Falun Gong's US-based founder, Li Hongzhi. "By so doing, you will become a healthy person; you will have no worries in life; and you will achieve good relationships with your family, your friends, and your colleagues."

After two hours in Kowloon Park, Hui, 48, leaves for work in the Buildings Department, where he is chief engineer and, he tells AFP, an exemplary employee. "Falun Gong [practitioners] don't get sick and they constantly seek ways to improve themselves," he says, adding that in the two-and-a-half years since he started practicing the movement's exercises and breathing techniques he has not felt ill. According to Li's teaching, each pose or movement during the exercises opens channels of qi, or energy, making practitioners feel stronger and healthier." Sometimes I get the symptoms of sickness," Hui says, "but I feel full of energy."

Falun Gong, which claims 70 million followers in mainland China and 100 million worldwide, was banned by Beijing in July 1999, three months after a demonstration of 10,000 followers in Beijing unnerved the authorities. In the crackdown that has followed, a total of 72 Falun Gong adherents have died in police custody and tens of thousands more have been imprisoned, according to human rights groups. The repression however has failed to wipe out a movement whose followers are convinced they have found a way to health and happiness.

Lu Jie, another Hong Kong follower, says her introduction to Falun Gong helped her overcome chronic insomnia and eczema. "I had insomnia from the age of 17 until 34," she said. "I also had skin problems -- my fingers were swollen and blistered. Some days it was so bad, I could not wash my face without wearing rubber gloves." Within days of starting to read Li's book, the Wheel of the Law, the eczema had started to clear up and she began to find sleeping much easier. "At first I was sceptical -- I thought Falun Gong was for old people, not someone my age," she said.

Another member of Lu's group, which meets every day in a park opposite China's offices here, says a lump on her breast disappeared when she started following Li's teachings.

Such claims may invite scepticism. But, according to documents posted on Li's website, even China's own official research has shown that Falun Gong followers are healthier than the average population.

In 1998, when Beijing was still trying to get to understand what was behind the movement's rapid growth, Beijing carried out a survey of more than 12,000 followers across China. The study concluded that they were less likely to be ill and that, when they did get ill, they recovered faster. The researchers, who included doctors at some of Beijing's top hospitals and universities, even estimated that Falun Gong was saving the state 3,790 yuan (Chinese dollars) a year in medical costs for each follower. Now, however, Beijing has totally changed its tune, claiming that Falun Gong followers' blind faith in Li has led to thousands of them dying needlessly.

Despite China's crackdown, the Hong Kong authorities have so far ruled out any move to ban Falun Gong here. But its followers in the territory complain of spies, phone tapping, homes being broken into and other forms of harassment. Lu says she cannot take her son to visit his grandparents in Beijing because she has been on a "blacklist" since going to the capital last year to appeal to Jiang to stop the persecution of Falun Gong. "They have my name. A lot of us are facing this problem."

Wang Yaoqing said she had been arrested during a visit to Shenzhen, a town just across the border from Hong Kong. Handcuffed and shackled, she was detained for five months without trial then finally sentenced to another three months. If she tried to practice her exercises in prison the police would beat her. "Every day they tried to make me give up Falun Gong -- they even brought my father to tell me to give it up." But Wang never lost her faith. "I deeply believed that I didn't do anything wrong, that there is nothing wrong with being a good person." "We didn't provoke this (persecution)," Lu says. "All we want is to be able to practice in the parks in peace." ((c) 2000 Agence France Presse)

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