Word: tung
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Falun Gong? The territory's leaders are sending out mixed signals. Last week, Sir Donald Tsang, head of Hong Kong's civil service, appeared to assert that the government would not outlaw the group. But his words were carefully ambiguous. And just days earlier, his boss, Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa, stood up before the territory's Legislative Council and declared: "There is no doubt Falun Gong is an evil cult." That statement has been broadly interpreted as a precursor for a tough anticult bill. And if such a bill is submitted, the legislature, packed with people who follow Beijing...
...Despite Tung's role as Hong Kong's top representative, when it comes to matters on which Beijing has pronounced judgment, he consistently toes the party line. In his statement, he said Hong Kong does not need new legislation "at this point" but added: "We must monitor Falun Gong very carefully." Once again, Tung seems to think patriotic behavior means echoing the wishes of China's President Jiang Zemin, who wants Falun Gong quashed. The anticult arguments that Tung and his senior officials have advanced are forced and fallacious. Tung has said the self-immolation in Tiananmen Square of "cultists...
...Would Tung have called Buddhists "evil cultists" because some monks had committed self-immolation? Would he have banned Buddhism? Before answering, he and his supporters would do well to ponder the following. Communism is as alien to China as Catholicism was to Vietnam?both are European in origin. By contrast, Falun Gong's teachings, however simplistic and superstitious, are rooted in three ancient Chinese traditions: Qigong, Taoism and Buddhism. Those in China who still profess to believe in communism are as small a minority as Catholics were in Vietnam. Perhaps a few Falun Gong followers did burn themselves to death...
...view, Deng Xiaoping promoted the One Country, Two Systems formula to allow China to become more like Hong Kong, not the other way around. If Tung, out of a misplaced sense of patriotism, enacts anticult legislation to please Beijing's leaders, he will be doing his country a disservice. Tsang's remarks suggest moderation but even he left open the possibility of a future ban. "We are not legislating," he said last week, a statement that covers just the present, meaning the government might shift tack at any time. That would please the ignorant and the sycophants in China...
...Shah Dev was a very, very studious student," Tung adds. "He knew he was being groomed to be the king...