China brands another group as a cult

CNN News, January 31, 2000

HONG KONG (Reuters) -- China has closed down 100 offices of a group with similarities to the banned Falung Gong spiritual movement after declaring it a cult, a Hong Kong-based human rights group said on Monday.

The Information Centre of Human Rights & Democratic Movement in China said Chinese police began the crackdown last November after President Jiang Zemin labelled as a cult the Zhong Gong group, which has more than 10 million practitioners in China.

Zhong Gong practices "Qigong," a traditional Chinese system of deep breathing exercises or meditation.

The crackdown follows months of arrests of Falun Gong members. Chinese police raided Zhong Gong's head office in Beijing and confiscated 50 million yuan ($6.02 million) in assets last November, it said.

The human rights group said earlier this month that hundreds of police closed down the group's largest training base in the northwestern province

of Shaanxi in December, dispersing about 2,000 practitioners. Chinese authorities also closed down some 60 offices of a company linked to the Zhong Gong movement in Inner Mongolia, Guangxi, and Yunnan provinces, it said.