South China Morning Post: 1,600 seeking to stage Jiang protests

Up to 1,600 people have applied to demonstrate when President Jiang Zemin visits Hong Kong on Monday to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the handover.

Mr Jiang will also officiate at the swearing-in ceremony for Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa and his new cabinet at the Convention and Exhibition Centre.

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Up to 1,600 demonstrators from various groups have applied to stage protests tomorrow or on Monday. Six-hundred abode seekers, 250 Falun Gong members and 100 disgruntled mainland property owners will rally outside Immigration Tower on Monday.

A total of 150 Falun Gong members will gather at Hunghom Pier tomorrow or on Monday, near the Harbour Plaza Hotel where state leaders are expected to stay.

At least 10 Falun Gong members - five from Australia, one from the United States, two from Macau, one from Taiwan and one from Sweden - have been refused entry to Hong Kong over the past eight days.

One of the Australian members, Jenny Zheng, said the Hong Kong Government had a blacklist of Falun Gong members as about 100 practitioners had been refused entry to Hong Kong in May last year when Mr Jiang visited for the Fortune Global Forum.

A spokesman for the Hong Kong Falun Gong Group, Kan Hung-cheung, said: "The fact that so many members are being refused entry within such a short period of time suggests the Immigration Department does have a list of our members.

"Whether these members are coming to the SAR to join our rally or for personal reasons, I can't see there are any grounds to refuse them entry."