Canada-based Falun Gong member said missing in China

HONG KONG, May 24 (Reuters) - A Canada-based member of the Falun Gong spiritual movement has been missing since crossing into mainland China earlier this month, sparking fears that she may have been detained by police, a Hong Kong rights group said.

Zhu Ying, a Canadian permanent resident from Montreal, took part in a meeting of Falun Gong members in Hong Kong earlier this year, the Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said on Thursday.

She travelled to the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen from Hong Kong on May 10 and planned to visit her parents in nearby Guangzhou city, it said.

Zhu had not been heard from since then, the centre said.

Unidentified sources told her relatives Zhu had been detained by police but mainland police had yet to notify her family, the rights group said.

The Falun Gong movement, which practises a mixture of Taoism and Buddhism, as well as traditional Chinese physical exercises, has been outlawed in China where it has been branded as an evil cult and accused of trying to overthrow the government.

07:25 05-24-01

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