DATE=12/17/1999 TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT TITLE=YEARENDER- CHINA-FALUN GONG NUMBER=5-45026 BYLINE=STEPHANIE HO DATELINE=BEIJING CONTENT= VOICED AT: INTRO: China is in the midst of a high-profile battle to try to wipe out Falun Gong, a spiritual movement the government calls an evil cult and has outlawed. As we hear from V-O-A's Stephanie Ho in Beijing Falun Gong was this year transformed from relative obscurity to the Chinese government's public enemy number one. TEXT: Falun Gong stunned the world and, apparently, Chinese authorities, when more than 10-thousand members staged a bold sit-in protest in April. Followers of the spiritual group surrounded the Zhongnanhai central leadership compound in Beijing and demanded official recognition. The Chinese government gave its answer three months later. It declared Falun Gong illegal and launched a nationwide crackdown against group leaders. Broadcasts on state-run television indicated that first and foremost, the Chinese government blamed Falun Gong for disturbing social order. // C-C-T-V SOUND - FADE IN, EST, FADE OUT // By the end of October, China formally labeled the group a cult. The National People's Congress then passed legislation calling for stepped-up measures to deal with groups Beijing considers cults. The director of the State Administration of Religious Affairs, Ye Xiaowen, told reporters Beijing sees Falun Gong as a threat to the personal safety of most Chinese people. // YE CHINESE AND INTERPRETER ACT // The Chinese government cannot sit back and do nothing about Falun Gong, a cult organization that has seriously endangered society. // END ACT // The Chinese government is accusing the spiritual group of being responsible for the deaths of at least 14- hundred members - who were not allowed to seek medical treatment or allegedly driven crazy. Mr. Ye says Beijing has also charged Falun Gong and its founder with financial crimes. // YE AND INTERPRETER ACT // Li Hongzhi has made a fortune out of Falun Gong illegally. Most of his ill-gotten wealth has evaded tax. // END ACT // Falun Gong followers were dismayed when the government declared the group an illegal organization. They came to Beijing from around the country to appeal to the central government to change its mind. One younger adherent, 26-year-old teacher Mr. Sun, says some members have been severely beaten. // SUN CHINESE ACT - IN FULL, FADE OUT // Nevertheless, he pledged to continue studying Falun Gong. He says he thinks it is not a bad thing, and only teaches him to be a good person. Lowell Dittmer, a political science professor at the University of California at Berkeley, says the Chinese government may see Falun Gong as a challenge to the ruling party. // DITTMER ACT // These people define their basis of their authority not in terms of the Communist Party. They have a sort of separate sort of legitimacy. This is threatening to the government. The government sort of defines them as being political even though they were previously apolitical. And certainly, if they mobilize 12- thousand people in the middle of Beijing, this is a political statement. // END ACT // The Chinese government disputes Falun Gong's claim to have 100-million adherents, saying it officially estimates the group's membership at about two million. The Chinese Communist Party has about 60-million members. Beijing's crackdown against Falun Gong has so far netted more than 150 followers, who are being charged with crimes ranging from disturbing social order to leaking state secrets. The stiffest prison sentence was handed down to a leader in the southern island province of Hainan. He has been jailed for 12 years. China's most wanted man in all of this, is Falun Gong founder Li -- who lives out of reach, in the United States. (SIGNED) NEB/HO/FC/PLM 17-Dec-1999 05:30 AM EDT (17-Dec-1999 1030 UTC) NNNN Source: Voice of America .
