Reuters: Taiwan Urged to Invite [Group] Leader to Visit (Excerpt)

TAIPEI, Dec 24, 2000 -- (Reuters) About 2,000 followers of the Falun Gong spiritual [group] banned in China marched through Taipei on Sunday, mourning their Chinese brethren and urging Taiwan to invite the group's leader to visit.

They carried flowers, banners and pictures of what they said were 103 members of the sect tortured to death in Chinese police custody.

"Stop persecuting Falun Gong," read a huge banner.

Chang Ching-hsi, an economics professor and president of Falun Gong's Taiwan branch, asked government human rights groups to invite the [group]'s reclusive leader Li Hongzhi to visit.

"Many Taiwan practitioners have never seen Master Li. We hope he can come," Chang told Reuters.

Political analysts said a visit to Taiwan by Li, who lives in self-imposed exile in the United States, was certain to infuriate China and plunge relations with Taiwan into crisis.

Falun Gong is a mixture of Buddhism, Taoism, meditation and breathing exercises designed to harness energy in the body and heal. Beijing branded it [...] and banned it last year for challenging the Communist Party's monopoly of power.

Li, who has rarely been seen in public since China launched a harsh crackdown on the group, has been accused of masterminding a siege of Beijing's Zhongnanhai leadership compound by 10,000 members of the [group] last year and plotting to overthrow the government.

[Group] members dismissed the accusations. "It's not []," said Sven Olausson, a 41-year-old technician from Sweden who has practiced Falun Gong for more than five years.

"Li Hongzhi is very kind and very great," added Poul Anderson, a 72-year-old retired aviation official from Denmark.

About 500 adherents from 17 countries and territories flew in for the silent protest march, which ended peacefully.

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Li preaches salvation from a world corrupted by science, technology and decadence, [...]. He says Falun Gong is apolitical and poses no threat to Beijing.

Hui Kwok-hung, a 48-year-old Hong Kong civil servant who attended the rally with his wife and their two children, was convinced Li has done nothing wrong and that practicing Falun Gong was good for his health and morals.

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Human rights groups say China has jailed 50,000 Falun Gong followers, many of whom were sent to labor camps without trial.

Zhang Cuiying, a 38-year-old artist from Shanghai who is now an Australian citizen, said Chinese authorities jailed her for eight months and tortured her when she visited China last year.

"They punched me and hit me on the head until I couldn't move. They locked me up with male inmates," Zhang said in an interview. "They vowed to make it living hell for me."

Taiwan Vice President Annette Lu, reviled by Beijing for her pro-independence stand, attended a rally on Saturday by more than 1,000 Falun Gong members in central Taipei.

Her action is almost certain to further anger Beijing, which has threatened to attack Taiwan if it declares independence.

In Macao last week, Chinese President Jiang Zemin issued a steely warning against dissent as police dragged off more than a dozen protesting Falun Gong followers.

http://www.insidechina.com/news.php3?id=235864§ion=Taiwan