Litmus Test

John Stanmeyer for TIME

Falun Gong members in Hong Kong's Victoria Park

Evian Wong now has a firsthand taste of the new Hong Kong. The 33-year-old business executive is a follower of the Falun Gong spiritual movement that for the past 18 months has been the target of a brutal crackdown on the mainland. On Jan. 2, Wong awoke as usual at 6 a.m. and made the 10-minute walk from her apartment to a nearby park, where she spent an hour practicing the group's freeze-frame meditation exercises. When she arrived at the office, her boss was waiting. He bluntly told Wong she was fireddespite having offered her a promotion two days before. "He...

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