HONG KONG (AP)--Amid calls from pro-Beijing forces to clamp down on Falun Gong, Justice Secretary Elsie Leung said Sunday she has no plan to enact a law against the meditation sect, which is banned in mainland China.
Leung said she "hasn't received any instruction" from the government to establish any law to restrict the sect, which has been criticized by pro-Beijing forces as evil and associated with Western forces in an anti-China conspiracy.
On Thursday, Hong Kong's leader Tung Chee-hwa became the first government official in the territory to call the group a "cult." The chief executive said the government will closely monitor the group's activities but added that the controversy over the group won't prompt Hong Kong to speed up the legislation of an anti-subversion law.
Following Tung's line, Leung reiterated Sunday that the public shouldn't be too concerned about enactment of the anti-subversion law, which the government must pass at some point now that the former British colony has returned to China.
Leung said the government will take public opinion into account before deciding to pass the legislation.
Falun Gong has come under attack from the mainland Chinese government and pro-Beijing groups in the territory since the Hong Kong government allowed it to hold an international conference last month at a public concert hall, where sect followers openly attacked Beijing's "brutal crackdown."
Although Falun Gong is banned in China, the group remains legal in Hong Kong, where citizens enjoy considerably more freedom than their counterparts on the mainland.
Falun Gong has attracted millions of followers, most of them in China, with its combination of slow-motion exercises and philosophy drawn from Taoism, Buddhism and the often unorthodox ideas of founder Li Hongzhi.