HONG KONG (Reuters) - Members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement, outlawed in mainland China, said on Tuesday they will boost their presence at Hong Kong's book fair this week to draw attention to Beijing's two-year crackdown on the group.
"We will not be doing our meditation exercises. We will do something very surprising and wonderful," said Peng Shi, a Falun Gong member close to the group's organizers at the book fair.
He said that unlike previous years, the group would not be selling its books and what its members intend to do when the fair opens on Wednesday remains a mystery.
Falun Gong, which mixes meditation and slow-paced exercises, is legal in Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China since July 1997.
The Hong Kong government has said it is keeping a close eye on the group and echoes Beijing in calling it an "evil cult" but it has said it has no plans at this time to outlaw it. The Falun Gong members, with Saint Bright Publications Co. Ltd., have booked nine booths at the six-day fair, which attracts 300,000 buyers and residents each year. They had two booths in 2000 and one in 1999.
The display is organized by Belinda Pang, leader of a Falun Gong faction that broke with Hong Kong's main group about two years ago.
The spokesman for the larger group, Kan Hung-cheung, called on Beijing on Tuesday to keep its promise to improve human rights ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
"We hope the Chinese government will live up to its promise to improve human rights and not see it as a license to kill. We worry that after winning the bid, the (Chinese President) Jiang Zemin regime will still persecute and torture Falun Gong members," he told a news conference.
Falun Gong estimates it has about 500 members in Hong Kong, against 1,000 before Beijing began its crackdown on the mainland.
The main Falun Gong group distanced itself from Pang and her followers last year after they carried out what were perceived as publicity stunts, including apparent suicide attempts sitting on window ledges and a hunger strike by a pregnant follower.
Their actions only triggered a public backlash.
Copyright 2001 Reuters News Service. All rights reserved.