Reuters: China Charges Macao Falun Gong Follower, Said Hong Kong Human Rights Group

HONG KONG, Feb 20, 2001 -- (Reuters) China has charged a Macao-based follower of the Falun Gong spiritual movement, banned on the mainland, with" inciting to subvert state power", a Hong Kong human rights group said on Tuesday.

Zhang Yuhui was arrested in adjoining Zhuhai in southern China on December18 last year when Chinese President Jiang Zemin was visiting Macao, the Information Center for Human Rights & Democracy said in a statement.

Zhang, 36, is a mainland Chinese living in the autonomous Chinese city of Macao where Falun Gong is legal. Portugal ran Macao for 450 years before it reverted to China in December 1999.

The information group quoted unidentified "informed sources" as saying Zhang had been arrested for spreading pro-Falun Gong remarks on the Internet.

Last October, Beijing launched new Internet laws, one of which bans the use of the Web for "[Chinese government's slanderous word]" activities, the Hong Kong group said.

Just before Macao's 1999 hand over, Zhang had been detained in Zhuhai for three months for releasing articles supportive of Falun Gong through China-based and overseas websites.

The information center said southern China's Guangdong province recently took new steps to crack down on the mainland activities of Hong Kong and Macao practitioners.

Hong Kong and Macao followers engaging in Falun Gong activity in mainland China would be sent to jail or labor camps just as are their mainland counterparts, the information center said.

The authorities have also stepped up investigation of the links of practitioners on the mainland with those in Hong Kong and Macao, and take strict action against the mainland adherents with such links, the group said.

It said it had learned that if Jiang visited Hong Kong in May, the movement's believers from Hong Kong, Southeast Asia and the United State would stage anti-Jiang protests in the territory.

Falun Gong, a mixture of [...] and traditional Chinese physical exercises, has been outlawed in China where it has been accused of trying to overthrow the government.