The New York

Friday, October 29, 1999

Falun Gong Protests Intensify

By The Associated Press

BEIJING (AP) -- As police tackled them and dragged away at least one by the hair, members of Falun Gong stepped up their campaign of defiance today, petitioning Chinese leaders to end an intensifying crackdown on their banned spiritual movement.

Teams of plainclothes and uniformed police rushed about Tiananmen Square today, attempting to put a stop to five days of protests that until today had been largely quiet and peaceful. At least 50 people were taken from the vast square, some of them shouting at police as they were wrestled to the ground.

Police set upon a handful of university-age Falun Gong practitioners as they took out a letter beseeching the communist government for tolerance. Officers twisted one youth's arm, forcing him to double over, chased down another fleeing across the street and grabbed the hair of a third, pulling him into a clutch of police.

The renewed confrontations proved how undaunted Falun Gong followers remain despite a three-month ban on the once widely popular group and a fresh wave of repression ordered by the communist government.

Spreading a dragnet across Beijing, police have arrested at least 3,000 group members this week from every part of China except Tibet, a Communist Party source said on condition of anonymity. A directive issued Wednesday night, he said, ordered tightened security at government buildings, airports, railroad and bus stations in all major cities.

Falun Gong members had seeped into the capital in recent weeks on word that the government was preparing fresh measures to subdue recalcitrant followers. On the run as members of an outlawed group, they have slept in homes of sympathizers, at construction sites or any other place they can find.

``We've been forced to sleep on the streets, under bridges, along avenues, passageways, with the possibility of arrest at any time,'' said Qu Dehong, who with his wife and 11-year-old son, left their Jidong county home in the chilly northeast for Beijing nearly six weeks ago.

``People sleeping on the streets is only the tip of it,'' said Yang Chunguang, a 28-year-old clothes merchant from the northeastern provincial capital of Changchun. Too poor to buy bottled water, some are drinking out of toilets, using plastic containers found in the trash, he said.

Binding them together are a firm conviction in Falun Gong -- a blend of slow-motion exercises and Buddhist and Taoist ideas believed to promote health and morality -- and the tools of modern communications. Some carry mobile phones and pagers. They use the Internet to keep in touch with members in the United States, Australia and other countries.

Through e-mail and mobile phones, believers in recent days have tried to counter the police action by contacting foreign reporters, discarding an earlier reluctance to use the Western media.

``We know nothing good will come of being videotaped by foreign journalists. But we must do it to explain our teachings,'' said Yang. ``We are waiting for a fair airing of our views by the government.''

Chinese leaders, frightened by Falun Gong's popularity and flair for secretive organization, banned the group in July. Since then, thousands of rank-and-file members have been detained and forced to recant their beliefs. Dozens of organizers are believed in jail awaiting trial.

Chinese leaders this week initiated a new five-step campaign to eradicate the group by early next year, the Communist Party source said.

As the first step, the party newspaper People's Daily ran a stinging front-page diatribe officially branding the group ``an evil cult'' instead of just an illegal organization. At a weeklong session, senior legislators prepared a law that would lengthen prison sentences for members and organizers of cults.

After its expected adoption Sunday, courts throughout the country will be told to use the new law in trials against leading members, the party member said. He added that once the ringleaders are put away, investigators will turn to secondary members.

One organizer, Xu Xinmu, could go on trial as early as next week in Shijiazhuang city for ``revealing state secrets'' by passing on information on the crackdown to other members, a Hong Kong-based human rights group reported. Officials at the city's Qiaoxi district court said they knew nothing about the case.

Also in Hong Kong today, about 60 Falun Gong practitioners gave the city's government a letter demanding that Beijing stop vilifying the group. Falun Gong is not banned in largely autonomous Hong Kong.

The Falun Gong members want Hong Kong to pass the letter to the Chinese leadership. A spokeswoman for Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa said it will be relayed to Beijing.