HONG KONG, May 5 (Reuters) - Hong Kong police, bracing for possible protests from several groups including the Falun Gong spiritual movement, stepped up security checks on Saturday at the venue of a top business and government leaders meeting.
Ahead of next week's Fortune Global Forum, police said they had received protest applications from five groups including Falun Gong, the environmental group Greenpeace and mainland activists lobbying for Hong Kong residency.
The three-day conference which opens on Tuesday will feature Chinese President Jiang Zemin, Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, former U.S. President Bill Clinton, and Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer. More than 600 CEOs and managing directors are expected to be present.
Seeking to avoid the violent protests that disrupted recent world financial meetings, Hong Kong police said on Friday they would throw a tight cordon around the conference at the waterfront Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, where Britain returned the territory back to China in 1997.
Police will deploy 3,000 officers to handle security, compared with 2,000 during the handover ceremony to mark the transfer of sovereignty to Beijing.
On Saturday, policemen, wearing gas mask and oxygen tank, checked the sewers near the Convention Centre, while police divers combed the seabed near the waterfront site.
Police sniffer dogs also checked for explosive.
Jiang's visit is expected to draw large protests from members of the Falun Gong movement, which is outlawed in mainland China but remains legal in Hong Kong.
Protesters would be kept a few hundred metres (yards) away from the guests, police said.
Many political observers say the handling of the Falun Gong protest could be a key test of China's guarantee of a high degree of autonomy for the territory for 50 years after the handover.
China-anointed Hong Kong leader Tung Chee-hwa has been under pressure from Beijing to curb the group, which has been labelled an "evil cult" by Chinese leaders.
Tung last week issued his sternest warning yet, accusing Falun Gong members of damaging Hong Kong interests with its planned protest during Jiang's stay.
Police have said they would allow peaceful demonstrations as long as they were legal and did not pose a danger to others.
Some Hong Kong newspapers on Saturday criticised the tight security measures. The Chinese-language Ming Pao newspaper said the planned security moves might lead to overseas visitors to think that freedoms had been curbed after the handover.
The Hong Kong Economic Journal said demonstrations were a means for the disadvantaged to vent their grievances and would help soothe social conflicts.
01:32 05-05-01
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