DATE=11/8/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=CHINA - FALUN GONG (L)
NUMBER=2-255926
BYLINE=STEPHANIE HO
DATELINE=BEIJING
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: China says 111 Falun Gong members have been
arrested since a crackdown against the spiritual group
began in July. V-O-A's Stephanie Ho reports the
Chinese government has also acknowledged that two
followers have died while in police custody.
TEXT: Last week, a spokesman for China's State
Council, Li Bing, would only say that police have
detained a small number of Falun Gong members.
On Monday, Mr. Li followed up this assertion with more
concrete details.
He said police in Beijing formally arrested 111 Falun
Gong adherents on charges of obstructing law
enforcement, disturbing social order, illegal business
activities and stealing state secrets. Mr. Li added
authorities have also rounded up more than one
thousand other Falun Gong members, who streamed into
the capital from other parts of the country in recent
weeks. The followers were protesting the government's
campaign against the group.
The Chinese spokesman said most of those detained were
subject to lectures about the evils of Falun Gong and
then sent back to their home provinces.
Mr. Li acknowledged two Falun Gong adherents died
while they were under official supervision. But he
said these people did not die at the hands of the
police and denied reports that other followers have
suffered beatings.
Mr. Li said 18-year-old high school student Chen Ying
was on a train with local officials who were taking
her back to her home in Heilongjiang province. He
said she died after she jumped out of the train.
He said another woman, Zhao Jinghua of Shandong
province, collapsed during questioning and died of
heart failure in the lavatory.
The Chinese spokesman said a third Falun Gong
follower, Li Ruihua from the southwestern city of
Chongqing, also died of heart problems in Beijing --
although she was not in police custody at the time.
China has vowed to wipe out Falun Gong -- a mixture of
Buddhism, Taoism, meditation and traditional breathing
exercises. The government has accused the group of
challenging the ruling Communist Party and blames it
for more than 14-hundred deaths.
Falun Gong claims 100-million members -- far more than
the government's estimate of two million. The group
denies it is a cult and says it poses no threat to the
60-million strong Chinese communist party. (signed)
NEB/HO/FC/PLM
08-Nov-1999 05:28 AM EDT (08-Nov-1999 1028 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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