China alleged yesterday that Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) was using the Falun Gong spiritual movement banned by Beijing to promote Taiwan's independence.
The official Xinhua news agency said in a commentary that the "Falun Gong and pro-independence activists are joining hands to support one another."
Xinhua said Lu lent public backing to the Buddhist-inspired sect by speaking at a Falun Gong event in Taipei in December.
"Those people of the Taiwan authorities are doing nothing but trying to use Falun Gong for their own separatist purposes as the cult has been collaborating with anti-China forces in the West over the past year," Xinhua said.
The Chinese government banned the Falun Gong in July 1999, three months after some 10,000 members of the group staged a spectacular protest in front of the communist leaders' headquarters in Beijing, in the biggest demonstration since the 1989 pro-democracy movement.
Falun Gong claims about 100,000 followers in Taiwan, having seen a sharp rise in membership since it was banned in China.
China's official press launched a vicious attack on Lu last year.
"Scum of the nation," was just one of the labels given to Lu by China's official press, which was driven to near hysteria by her implied meaning in reported comments that China and Taiwan were not part of one country.
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