It would take a leap of the imagination to associate the pleasant, eager and mild-mannered people gathered in the Hong Kong convention centre yesterday with the organisation China has banned as an "evil cult".
The 900 members of Falun Gong from countries all over the world, including Ireland, attending a conference here yesterday took pains to promote their image as nice people who just want to promote high moral values and lead better lives through cultivation exercises.
It was the first convention of the sect on Chinese territory since Beijing began a crackdown on its members in July after they began demonstrating for recognition, and they pleaded yesterday for Beijing to tolerate and accept them. Their ability to organise in mainland China, where they claim millions of members, unnerved the communist authorities and, since midsummer, po lice have arrested at least 150 of its leaders, jailed some for up to 12 years and sent an unknown number to labour camps without trial.
In Hong Kong, which retains a high degree of autonomy since it reverted to China in 1977, the government said Falun Gong's gathering would be tolerated as long as it remained within the law. But Beijing is clearly unhappy about yesterday's conference and about the large Falun Gong demonstration on Saturday outside the office of the Chinese news agency, Xinhua.
China's Commissioner of Foreign Affairs in Hong Kong, Mr Ma Yuzhen, warned on government radio that Falun Gong practitioners should not use Hong Kong as a base, claiming they intended to do so by bringing followers from overseas to the territory.
Such a comment clearly puts pressure on the Hong Kong government to curtail such activities, and Hong Kong's chief executive, Mr Tung Chee-hwa, said on Saturday the organisers "must not act in any manner against the interests of China, Hong Kong or one country, two systems". This remark prompted concern from the South China Morning Post that a sedition law might be on the way, eroding the freedoms enjoyed by Hong Kong.
Five members of Falun Gong, who held a press conference at the end of their experience-sharing conference, denied plans to use Hong Kong as a base. Mr Ze mon Dolnyckyj from Canada said that they had international gatherings in many cities and Hong Kong was just one of them.
"Our main concern is to get together and share our experiences and let the people know about Dafa," he said. "Let the people hear our speeches and see our conduct on the streets. Our major goal is to let the world know that Falun Dafa is good and that it is virtuous."
The 21-year-old Canadian said he came across Falun Gong on the Internet and it enabled him to "take on a life of truth and compassion and get rid of all the negative stuff from partying and doing drugs". The conference was taken up mainly with personal testimonials of lives improved by Falun Gong, or Falun Dafa, delivered from a stage backed with a picture of their absent guru, Mr Li Hongzhi, and banners bearing the swastika sign of the Falun.
A member from Beijing, Ms Ye Mingyan, said she was supervised 24 hours a day for 30 days, and had threatened to commit suicide when pressurised to go on television to denounce the cult. Listeners wept as another woman exiled from China told how she was warned that "the schools will not accept your children if you are in prison". Typical of the delegates was Mr Liu Feng (21), a soft-spoken student from Dalian in northern China who is studying international marketing at Dun Laoghaire Community College. There are five Chinese Falun Gong practitioners in Dublin and about 20 Irish members, he said, and they practised in Merrion Square every Sunday afternoon.
"We are not a sect," he insisted quietly. "A sect is closed and secret. We don't mind people coming to have a close look at us, to see that Falun Gong is only for the improvement of the body and the mind." He came to Hong Kong at his own expense and was worried that "if I go back to Dalian, maybe they will put pressure on my parents".
Falun Gong is a mixture of Buddhism, Taoism, meditation and breathing exercises designed to harness inner energy and healing powers by cultivating the mind, body and spirit. Delegates insisted that the movement had no formal structure or bank accounts and that practitioners came voluntarily to Hong Kong from countries such as Australia and Sweden.
The conference in the Hong Kong Convention Centre seemed well organised, however, with books and tapes on sale. In China Falun Gong, Mr Li Hongzhi explained such things as why a golden halo appeared over his head when a person's "celestial eye" was opened, and how followers could be protected from thunderbolts if practising cultivation exercises during a storm.