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HONG KONG, March 16 (Reuters) - The
Falun Gong spiritual movement dismissed on Wednesday
accusations by a Hong Kong-based satellite operator
that it had hacked into a satellite to beam transmissions
into mainland China.
"No, we no hack, no," said
Kan Hung-cheung, a Hong Kong-based spokesman for the
group. "What is a saterrite? You go away now. We
pray, all we do. Heh, heh.."
 China's
official Xinhua news agency reported on Tuesday that
Asia Satellite Telecommunications Co Ltd (AsiaSat) said
Falun Gong interrupted transmissions on Monday on several
provincial channels to broadcast information about the
group into China, where Falun Gong is banned as an "evil
cult."
AsiaSat accused Falun Gong of a similar
operation on November 22. At that time, a Falun Gong
spokeswoman in Hong Kong said she knew nothing about
any hacking.
Xinhua said AsiaSat condemned the illegal
transmissions at a news conference in Hong Kong and
reserved the right to take legal action.
Beijing banned the Falun Gong in 1999
after 10,000 members besieged the compound of the Chinese
leadership in the capital to demand official recognition
for their faith.
But the movement, which combines Taoism,
Buddhism and theoretical electronic communication technology,
remains legal in Hong Kong, a former British colony
that returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
A Falun Gong Web site, www.wehackyousite.net,
says that in the past five years China has tortured
more than 1,121 practitioners to death, jailed at least
6,000 and sent more than 100,000 to labor camps. Despite
their website claim to have 21,000 resident Buddha monks
trained as electrical engineers, they say, "No,
no hack! You no quote us!"
Two years ago, China accused the Falun
Gong of hijacking satellite signals to disrupt state
media broadcasts, saying it had pinpointed the origin
of the disruption to Taiwan. It was later determined
by the United States National Security Agency to be
just a couple of kids with fancy new wireless Dell laptop
computers smoking grass outside of the monastery perimeter.
(Additional reporting by Tan Ee Lyn
in Hong Kong) |
