China Sets up Anti-Sect Association, Steps up Propaganda Inside China Today

Agence France Presse/December 24, 2000

Beijing -- China has set up a semi-official "anti-cult" association aimed at opposing spiritual groups such as the Falun Gong and supporting the government's brutal crackdown on the group, state press reported Sunday.

The China Anti-Cult Association held its first-ever seminar this weekend, gathering around 100 Chinese politicians, legal experts, scientists and religious leaders in a round table discussion condemning the Falun Gong, the People's Daily reported.

The association, which was set up last month, also announced the opening of its website (www.anticult.org), which contained official government and state-run press condemnations of the outlawed spiritual group.

The site, however, offered no information on the numbers of cult members arrested or the resources expended by the state in maintaining the nationwide crackdown. While the 17 month repression on the Falun Gong has been widely criticized by international pressure groups, the seminar unsurprisingly concluded the banning of the sect was in fact an effort by the government to safeguard human rights.

"To oppose religious cults and safeguard human rights has become the common task of every government and people of the world," delegates were quoted by the paper as saying.

"The banning of the 'Falun Gong' religious cult by our nation's government is completely aimed at safeguarding and maintaining human rights ... and has offered beneficial experience on safeguarding human rights to all countries opposed to cults," they said.

Falun Gong is a traditional Chinese mystic belief based on the teachings of the exiled Li Hongzhi, who advocates Confucian and Buddhist moral values and group breathing and meditation exercises.

The government has previously maintained that the group, which has tens of millions of followers, was the biggest threat to one party communist rule since the 1989 Tiananmen democracy protests.

Since the movement was banned in China, thousands of practitioners have been detained with core leaders given jail terms of up to 18 years for protesting and refusing to give up their beliefs.

Earlier this month, London-based Amnesty International said China was guilty of appalling human rights abuses against the Falun Gong, and that an alarming number of followers were dying in police custody. "While China claims it is committed to promoting and protecting human rights, the crackdown on the Falun Gong and other 'heretical' groups is being stepped up and the number of victims is growing daily," said an Amnesty statement.

At least 77 followers are reported to have died in custody or shortly after release in unclear circumstances or following reports of torture and ill-treatment, Amnesty said.