HONG KONG -- Former Indian Chief Justice P.N. Bhagwati perfectly illustrated the enormous gulf between the political cultures of India and China when he arrived in Hong Kong recently as part of a United Nations human-rights inspection team.
Bhagwati was immediately badgered by the press to comment on the big issue right now -- the Falun Gong organization. Falun Gong was banned in China in July 1999 but has remained a legal association here in Hong Kong, much to China's discomfort.
All that Bhagwati said was, "I really don't know why it (Falun Gong) should be so controversial. In my country there are so many cults, we never bother about them. The best way of dealing with cults is to ignore them."