According to a report from the AFP on Wednesday, during the persecution of Falun Gong, the Chinese government has been constantly putting pressure on the Hong Kong Special District government, which has caused people in Taiwan to have less confidence in Mainland China.
The report says that the persecution from the Chinese government against Falun Gong practitioners and its criticism of Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Gong, only raise doubts on how much freedom Beijing actually allows. Although Falun Gong is legal in Hong Kong, Sun Yuxi, the spokesman from the Chinese Foreign Affairs Department, expressed on Tuesday that, in regards to Falun Gong activities, he believes the Special District government will act according to the law and will not allow Hong Kong to become the base to overthrow the Chinese central government. Scholars in Taiwan commented, "This clearly shows that Beijing has acted against the principle of 'One country, two systems;' it also makes people in Taiwan have less confidence in the mainland government or any form of unification with the mainland."