19/02/2001 (Agence Europe) - British Liberal Democrat Graham Watson, chair of the Committee of Freedoms and Citizens' Rights in the European Parliament, regarded as legitimate the request of the Falung Gong movement to hold conferences and meetings in Hong Kong. Mr. Watson, who was in Hong Kong at the head of a delegation of the EP's Liberal Group stressed that Hong Kong legislation recognised the right to freedom of religion and assembly, and that the Falun Gong, as long as it remained within the law, must be allowed. "It is not a criminal offence to embarrass Beijing", and this affair would rather be "a test of Hong Kong's commitment to the rule of law", said the MEP (see EUROPE of 17 February, p.5 for the resolution adopted by the European Parliament on religious freedom in China, where the Falun Gong has been banned since 1999).