AFP: Australian Falungong practitioner allegedly detained at Hong Kong airport

HONG KONG, Aug 22 (AFP) - An Australian Falungong practitioner has been denied entry at Hong Kong' s international airport and allegedly detained by immigration authorities, a spokeswoman for the spiritual group said Thursday.

Zhang Cuiying, who holds an Australian passport, was denied entry after arriving at the territory' s Chek Lap Kok airport at 3pm (0700 GMT) from Sydney, Falungong spokeswoman Sophie Xiao told AFP.

"She was invited here by a magazine to hold an art exhibition at the City Hall," said Xiao.

An immigration spokeperson could not be immediately contacted.

Xiao added that Zhang was a well known artist, who had been arrested before in the southern Chinese boomtown of Shenzhen en route to a Falungong protest in Beijing and subsequently imprisoned for eight months in March 2000.

Immigration officials have told Zhang that she will be deported on the first plane back to Sydney, Xiao added.

Hong Kong authorities deported at least 90 Falungong practitioners at the territory' s airport in June, in the leadup to celebrations marking the fifth anniversary of the former British colony' s return to Chinese sovereignty attended by Chinese President Jiang Zemin.

Falungong practitioners said the swift identification of Falungong members at the airport suggested authorities had an immigration "blacklist".

However, Security Secretary Regina Ip has denied the existence of such a list. […]