Dec. 1, 2000.

HONG KONG (Reuters) - A Chinese Canadian member of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement has been sent to a labour camp for three years, a Hong Kong human rights group said Friday.

Zhang Kunlun, 60, a naturalized Canadian citizen, was picked up by authorities in Jinan, capital of eastern China's Shandong province, in October, the Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said.

The 60-year-old sculpture professor was sentenced by a court in Shandong on Nov. 15 and now is in the Liuchangshan labour camp outside Jinan.

He went on a hunger strike before he was sentenced but no other details were available.

Zhang's sentence marked the first time any Falun Gong adherent who holds overseas nationality had been sent to a Chinese labour camp, the Hong Kong group said.

Zhang, who teaches in Shandong, emigrated to Canada in 1989 and became a Canadian citizen in 1995 while retaining his Chinese nationality. With his Chinese papers, he returned to China in 1996 to continue his teaching career.

A spokesperson for Jinan police told the centre that since Zhang re-entered China using a Chinese passport he could not enjoy the same protections available to other Canadians.

Canadian Embassy spokesperson Jennifer May confirmed Friday that authorities had so far not permitted Canadian diplomats to visit Zhang.

In Ottawa, a Foreign Affairs Department spokeman said Zhang's decision to use Chinese papers in re-entering the country ''complicates matters.''

''They do not recognized dual citizenship,'' spokesperson Reynald Doiron said.

''They consider him a Chinese national. Of course we consider him a Canadian but . . . (it does) compromise consular access.''

However, Doiron said talks with Chinese officials were continuing.

Zhang's wife is in China, but he has a daughter in Ottawa, officials said.

China has extended its crackdown on Falun Gong to overseas Chinese. On Nov. 23, U.S.-based adherent Teng Chunyan, who is not an American citizen, was tried in Beijing. The result has not yet been made public.

China is also known to have jailed a Hong Kong practitioner for eight months, and arrested another.

While Falun Gong is banned in China, it is legal in Hong Kong, a former British colony which was returned to China in mid-1997 as a highly autonomous administrative region.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, combines meditation and exercise with a doctrine loosely rooted in Buddhist and Taoist teachings.

The rights group said two more Falun Gong practitioners are known to have died while being detained by Chinese authorities.

The information centre said the latest deaths brought to 72 the total number of Falun Gong followers who had died in detention since July last year. But practitioners in Hong Kong last month said the number was ''at least 86.''

Authorities have acknowledged several deaths in custody, but say most resulted from suicide or illnesses.

The latest deaths include that Meng Qingshi, 42, who died in detention in Mucun, Shandong, on Nov. 20.

He was taken to a detention centre Sept. 30 and the township government demanded he pay a fine of 2000 yuan or about $360 Cdn. When his family failed to bring the money, Meng was beaten and died in detention, the centre alleges.

Local authorities in Shandong were not immediately available for comment.

Kong Qinghuang, a 33-year-old Falun Gong follower from the southwestern province of Yunnan, died in hospital Sept. 3. Authorities had sent him to hospital after he went on repeated hunger strikes following his arrest June 13.