Taipei, March 1 (CNA) Vice President Annette Lu protested Saturday Hong Kong's "crude" treatment of a group of Falun Gong practitioners from Taiwan, describing it as a violation of human rights as bad as the 228 Incident in Taiwan 56 years ago.
In a news conference called to denounce the Hong Kong authorities' deportation of 80 Taiwanese Falun Gong followers on Feb. 20 and Feb. 21, Lu said the former British colony has rapidly lost its shine as the Pearl of the Orient and a "beacon of freedom" since it was handed back to Beijing in 1997.
The Falun Gong practitioners visited Hong Kong Feb. 20 and Feb. 21 separately but were denied entry at the airport and forcibly turned away by Hong Kong police.
If this method of deporting persona non grata is anything to go by, the vice president said, Hong Kong's human rights record is deteriorating.
She noted that she was turned away by Hong Kong customs authorities "politely" in 1991 when she tried to visit mainland China through the British colony, but said the Hong Kong police used riot gear to force the Taiwanese Falun Gong followers to leave Feb. 20 and Feb. 21.
Although the Mainland Affairs Council issued a formal protest over the episode, the vice president said she hopes other government agencies will keep turning up the heat on the Hong Kong authorities.
Many Falun Gong practitioners joined Lu at the news conference and called on the Hong Kong authorities to apologize for the crude treatment meted out to them.