At least 180 Falun Gong members have been detained in a northern Chinese province on charges of sabotaging anti-SARS work by distributing pamphlets promoting the banned spiritual group, the main Communist Party newspaper said yesterday.
The crackdown in Hebei Province, just outside Beijing, reportedly began in mid-April at about the time officials ordered tougher measures to control the spread of SARS.
As of Wednesday, 180 followers had been rounded up, the People's Daily reported. It didn't give any details of their identities and officials in Hebei didn't immediately respond to requests for information about them or what charges they might face.
The People's Daily report didn't give any details of SARS-prevention work that was disrupted by the activists. But it cited an incident in which a Falun Gong activist gave workers at an anti-SARS health checkpoint a booklet on Falun Gong that he said contained "the secret route to SARS prevention."
Falun Gong was banned in 1999 as a threat to public safety and communist rule. The group had attracted millions of adherents with its mix of eastern philosophy, meditation and traditional calisthenics.
Thousands of followers have been detained and activists say scores have died from police abuse. Authorities deny killing anyone, but say some have died in accidents or from hunger strikes.
Although Hebei has been aggressive in its moves against Falun Gong, the World Health Organization says the province has failed to gather adequate data on the spread of SARS.
Hebei has reported eight SARS fatalities and 192 cases, while the total death toll for China stands at 336, with more than 5,000 people infected.
Meanwhile, the SARS crisis in China has shown the need for the government to be more open toward the public, an editorial in the state-run China Daily said yesterday.
This openness, channeled through the media, will also help officials be aware of what people think, said the editorial, by Xue Baosheng, a researcher at Peking University's School of Government Administration.
"[The] facts clearly demonstrate that only by actively upholding the citizens' right to know can the government be better supervised by the public and in turn win the trust and respect of those it serves," it said.
Xue argued in the editorial that the failure to own up to the facts reflected officials' outdated convictions that unpleasant news can cause social disorder.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was