AFP: China Admits Growing Falun Gong Protests But Vows to Crush Movement

BEIJING, Jan 5, 2001 -- (Agence France Presse) China said Friday it had failed to prevent growing daily protests by the Falun Gong spiritual movement, but warned there would be no let-up in its 18-month campaign to wipe out the banned group.

A long commentary by the official Xinhua news agency admitted protests by Falun Gong practitioners in Beijing's Tiananmen Square had been snowballing since the October 1 National Day celebrations.

"Since October 1, the Falun Gong never stopped making trouble in Tiananmen square and the level of trouble has become greater," said the editorial.

It said hundreds of Falun Gong followers had made daily protests in the square in the last 10 days of December using increasingly extreme methods and with the intention of besmirching China's international image.

The editorial said the group was using carrier pigeons and kites to spread the word of Falun Gong, had painted slogans on Tiananmen Gate and that some followers tried to commit suicide in the square. [Note from Editor of EMH: This accusation is completely fabricated by the Chinese Communist regime.]

It also accused Falun Gong protesters of resisting arrest and in some cases assaulting police officers.

AFP reporters in Tiananmen Square on New Year's Day saw around 700 practitioners detained without putting up any resistance. Many of them were severely beaten by police in front of tourists during their arrests.

Tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have flocked to Tiananmen Square, the spiritual heart of China, since their movement was outlawed in July 1999 and a nationwide crackdown against the movement was launched.

However, despite the jailing of core leaders for up to 18 years and the detention of thousands of followers, the movement consistently defies intense security around Tiananmen Square to stage large-scale protests.

Small knots of protesters -- briefly shouting slogans or raising banners -- can be seen on the square virtually every day before they are tackled by police and carted away in waiting vans.

Falun Gong members, who follow the Buddhist-inspired teachings of their exiled [founder] Li Hongzhi, insist they are no threat to the government and simply want to be allowed to practice their beliefs unmolested.

However, the Xinhua editorial said attempts to smash the movement, which it calls [], would continue.

"In the end, the Falun Gong cannot escape their fate which is to completely die out," said the text, promising the movement would self-destruct.

Xinhua said it was clear the protests were well-planned and it pointed a finger at pro-democracy groups, pro-independence campaigners in Taiwan and unidentified hostile foreign forces.

"The Western anti-China forces never give up their plot to westernize and split China, they don't want to see a prosperous and strong China," it said.

It said forces in the West wanted to make China weak and were building up the Falun Gong movement as an opposition movement. The editorial said foreign cash was funding Falun Gong websites, radio stations and television production facilities.

"The collusion between the Falun Gong and Taiwan pro-independence and democratic movements is more open now," said Xinhua, accusing the group of trying to foment unrest in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao.

Falun Gong was outlawed after it staged the largest demonstration since the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests in 1989 outside the Communist Party headquarters in Beijing.

The Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy, which the Xinhua editorial accused of accepting Falun Gong funds, says nearly 100 practitioners have died in police custody since the ban.

Falun Gong members have told AFP large-scale protests are to continue in the run-up to the January 24 Lunar New Year Holiday when the group staged one of their largest protests last year. ((c) 2001 Agence France Presse)

http://www.cnn.com/2001/ASIANOW/east/01/05/bc.china.banned.sect.ap/index.html