Hong Kong exhibition targets Falun Gong

HONG KONG, China -- An exhibition vilifying the Falun Gong spiritual movement has opened in Hong Kong.

The three-day exhibition, that brands the group outlawed in mainland China an "evil cult", started Saturday in Hong Kong, where the movement remains legal.

The staging of the event follows the arrest in China earlier this week of two more members of a banned church group.

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The display of more than 200 pictures and photographs organized by pro-Beijing groups in the former British colony classed Falun Gong with some of the world's deadliest cults, such as Japan's doomsday Aum Shinri Kyo blamed for the Tokyo subway gas attack.

"We hope Hong Kong citizens, through this exhibition, can increase their understanding of cults...This can help maintain Hong Kong's stability," Jiang Enzhu, head of China's Liaison Office in Hong Kong, told reporters at the exhibition.

The controversial movement has become the biggest test to date of the freedoms that Beijing granted Hong Kong when Britain's colonial rule ended in 1997

Religious crackdown

Outside Hong Kong's City Hall, where the photography exhibition was being held, Falun Gong members distributed leaflets about the movement, known as Falun Dafa, which blends Taoism and Buddhism and traditional Chinese physical exercises.

Hui Yee-han, spokeswoman for the Hong Kong Association of Falun Dafa, said on Friday it regretted that Beijing was vilifying the movement with such an exhibition in the territory.

"They have distorted our aims and practices. It's a lie. The materials are fake," Hui said, adding that she would probably visit the exhibition.

Beijing has warned it will not allow the group to turn Hong Kong into an anti-China base.

Hong Kong's security chief Regina Ip hit out at the group earlier this month, calling it a heretical organization whose preaching encouraged superstition.

Beijing has stepped up its attacks on Hong Kong's Falun Gong movement after about 1,000 adherents from around the world held protests and a conference at the territory's City Hall in January.

Falun Gong claims to have millions of followers in China and has shocked the Communist Party by its persistence and ability to organize mass protests.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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