China defended yesterday its crackdown on the Falun Gong spiritual movement, saying the 18-month drive condemned abroad for its ruthlessness enjoyed widespread public support and was based on Chinese law.
A statement by China's cabinet, the latest salvo in an intensifying propaganda war against Falun Gong, did not mention a weekend rally in Hong Kong at which 1,000 supporters from around the world appealed for an end to the crackdown.
In a bid to address frequent reports Beijing was persecuting religious believers, the State Council Information Office said Falun Gong was a "social cancer."
The statement said 242 organizers of the sect had been jailed and some "stubborn elements" who had broken laws against illegal demonstrations had been sent to labor re-education camps.
The arrests and detentions "were not because these people were practicing Falun Gong, but because they had engaged in illegal activities and violated China's laws," said the statement, carried on the official Xinhua news agency.
The crackdown -- launched in July 1999, three months after a protest in which 10,000 Falun Gong members surrounded China's leadership compound -- was triggered by complaints by local authorities and ordinary citizens going back to 1996, it said.
"People from all segments of society and the masses had voiced strong complaints that Falun Gong was destroying families, endangering the physical and spiritual health of followers and threatening social order," it said.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, preaches a mixture of Taoism, Buddhism and traditional Chinese breathing exercises. It has shocked the Communist Party by its persistence and ability to organize a mass movement.
China banned Falun Gong in July 1999, calling it an "evil cult" which brainwashed and cheated its followers, and accuses the movement of causing as many as 1,600 deaths among practitioners.
But scenes of Chinese police beating elderly Falun Gong adherents broadcast around the world have sparked international condemnation, sullying Beijing's image as it campaigns to host the 2008 Olympic Games.
About 1,000 Falun Gong followers gathered in Hong Kong on Sunday denounced what they said was China's campaign of "evil persecution" against the group, for which they blamed Chinese President Jiang Zemin (
The supporters met in Hong Kong's City Hall, which is owned by the Hong Kong government, in defiance of the mainland leaders.
Falun Gong is legal in Hong Kong, which has retained a high degree of autonomy since the former British colony reverted to Chinese rule in mid-1997.
China has said little about the rally, but unleashed a new media campaign against the movement in advance of it.
Twelve people who had come for the weekend meeting were denied entry to Hong Kong and nine of them said in a statement immigration officials told them they were held because they came for the conference.
The Immigration Department said no one had been barred from entry because of their beliefs.
China has declared victory over Falun Gong repeatedly, but the group has staged almost daily protests in Tiananmen Square in central Beijing demanding official recognition as a religion.
Yesterday's cabinet statement acknowledged that "stubborn elements from Falun Gong, incited by Li Hongzhi (李宏志) and the evil cult organization, relentlessly come to Tiananmen Square to make trouble."
Last week, state media published a barrage of criticism of Falun Gong and Li, its exiled leader, accusing them of being a "cheap tool" of Western forces trying to topple the Communist Party. The group says some 50,000 members have been detained and many sent to labor camps without trial since Beijing banned it in July 1999.
The cabinet statement said only those followers who had broken Chinese laws were given re-education through labor sentences. Many were given reduced sentences or home detention as part of a policy to "educate and rescue as many as possible."
CALL FOR SUPPORT: President William Lai called on lawmakers across party lines to ensure the livelihood of Taiwanese and that national security is protected President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday called for bipartisan support for Taiwan’s investment in self-defense capabilities at the christening and launch of two coast guard vessels at CSBC Corp, Taiwan’s (台灣國際造船) shipyard in Kaohsiung. The Taipei (台北) is the fourth and final ship of the Chiayi-class offshore patrol vessels, and the Siraya (西拉雅) is the Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) first-ever ocean patrol vessel, the government said. The Taipei is the fourth and final ship of the Chiayi-class offshore patrol vessels with a displacement of about 4,000 tonnes, Lai said. This ship class was ordered as a result of former president Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) 2018
‘SECRETS’: While saying China would not attack during his presidency, Donald Trump declined to say how Washington would respond if Beijing were to take military action US President Donald Trump said that China would not take military action against Taiwan while he is president, as the Chinese leaders “know the consequences.” Trump made the statement during an interview on CBS’ 60 Minutes program that aired on Sunday, a few days after his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in South Korea. “He [Xi] has openly said, and his people have openly said at meetings, ‘we would never do anything while President Trump is president,’ because they know the consequences,” Trump said in the interview. However, he repeatedly declined to say exactly how Washington would respond in
WARFARE: All sectors of society should recognize, unite, and collectively resist and condemn Beijing’s cross-border suppression, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng said The number of Taiwanese detained because of legal affairs by Chinese authorities has tripled this year, as Beijing intensified its intimidation and division of Taiwanese by combining lawfare and cognitive warfare, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) made the statement in response to questions by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Puma Shen (沈柏洋) about the government’s response to counter Chinese public opinion warfare, lawfare and psychological warfare. Shen said he is also being investigated by China for promoting “Taiwanese independence.” He was referring to a report published on Tuesday last week by China’s state-run Xinhua news agency,
‘ADDITIONAL CONDITION’: Taiwan will work with like-minded countries to protect its right to participate in next year’s meeting, the foreign ministry said The US will “continue to press China for security arrangements and protocols that safeguard all participants when attending APEC meetings in China,” a US Department of State spokesperson said yesterday, after Beijing suggested that members must adhere to its “one China principle” to participate. “The United States insists on the full and equal participation of all APEC member economies — including Taiwan — consistent with APEC’s guidelines, rules and established practice, as affirmed by China in its offer to host in 2026,” the unnamed spokesperson said in response to media queries about China putting a “one China” principle condition on Taiwan’s
RSS