Friday, June 22, 2001

Donald Tsang Yam-kuen has ruled out any laws seeking to ban Falun Gong, saying there was no longer any need to speculate on the matter. The Chief Secretary for Administration also distanced himself from Tung Chee-hwa's description of Falun Gong as an [Chinese government's slanderous term omitted].

However, he said whether Falun Gong fitted the description was irrelevant and that religious freedom in Hong Kong was "non-negotiable".

"There is no need to speculate on what we are going to do. We are not legislating," Mr Tsang said to an audience of local and international reporters at the Foreign Correspondents' Club.

Mr Tsang said Mr Tung had only been expressing a personal opinion when he told lawmakers last week that the [group] was "no doubt an [Chinese government's slanderous term omitted]".

Being a devout Catholic, Mr Tsang said he had different views from those of the Chief Executive.

[...]

Falun Gong's local spokesman, Kan Hung-cheung, said he welcomed Mr Tsang's remarks but that even without an anti-xx law, the [group] could still be persecuted.

"It is good to see that senior officials are not blindly following Tung. I hope more officials learn what Falun Gong is all about and make their own decisions," he said. "However, only promising not to legislate is not enough. As long as people like Tung still have distorted views on our activities, we could still be persecuted by the Government through other means."

Martin Lee Chu-ming, leader of the Democrats, said that Mr Tsang's comments would make people in Hong Kong "more comfortable".

"But the problem is that Tung Chee-hwa is the Chief Executive and he spoke in that role," he said.

[...]

http://news.scmp.com/ZZZE49VL5OC.html