HONG KONG, Dec 5, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) Mainland public security officials have removed more than 100 followers of the Zhong Gong movement from one of its bases, a Hong Kong-based rights group said in a statement Sunday.

The removal represents the last batch of followers who were dispersed from the Chinese Traditional Culture Training Institute at Mei Xian in Shaanxi province, Zhong Gong's largest base in the country, a statement from the Information Center for Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China said.

Mainland authorities shut the institute down in October by forcing it to relocate to the capital city of Xian, and security officials have been dispersing the institute's 2,000 members, for the past two months.

"From the way the authorities shut down the Zhong Gong base, it appears that the authorities have already branded Zhong Gong as a cult. They dare not go all out after it because they have not yet resolved the Falungong issue," said Frank Lu, spokesman of the Information Center.

Zhong Gong, which combines Chinese breathing exercises and elements of Chinese culture, was founded by Zhang Hongbao in 1990.

It claims to heal illnesses and enable practitioners to develop extra-sensory abilities.

Zhang, 40, is now being closely-monitored by authorities in Xian, Lu said.

The mainland government has become wary of qi gong movements after 10,000 Falungong practioners gathered around the Communist party headquarters in Beijing in April in a silent protest.

It considers Falungong the biggest threat to social stability since the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy demonstrations.

BEIJING (AP) - Chinese police quickly whisked away about 20 members of the banned group Falun Gong who sat down together in a protest at Tiananmen Square on Sunday.

The protesters were loaded into a police van and driven away. One man who refused to get up was carried and thrown into a different van by police. At least a dozen other people were taken away by police in small groups before and after the sit-down protest.

Falun Gong members have been going to the square to protest the government's declaration in July that the group is an illegal cult. Police who patrol the square in large numbers immediately stop any protests and detain participants.

It is not known how many Falun Gong members have been detained in the vast and tourist-filled square or in other places. The government banned the meditation and exercise group as a threat to Communist Party rule.

Before the ban, Falun Gong had millions of members all over the country who gathered publicly to perform a series of slow-motion exercises, sit in meditation and talk about the writings of the group's founder, Li Hongzhi. Li drew ideas from Buddhism, Taoism and traditional Chinese exercise and meditation practices said to improve health.

HONG KONG, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Police in China's central Shaanxi province have shut down the largest base of Zhong Gong, a spiritual movement similar to the outlawed Falun Gong and dispersed around 2,000 practitioners, a rights group said.

The Hong Kong-based Information Centre of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China said on Saturday this could mean the government had branded Zhong Gong an ``evil cult.''

China has declared Falun Gong ``an evil cult'' and has vowed to wipe out what it sees as a threat to communist rule. Some of the movement's leaders have been jailed.

Zhong Gong, which claims about 20 million followers in China and overseas, was founded in the early 1990s by Qi Gong master Zhang Hongbao, now 40. He is under close watch in Xian city, Frank Lu, founder of the rights group said.

The Zhong Gong centre in Shaanxi is called the China Traditional Culture Training Institute.

The movement combines classical Qi Gong with elements of traditional Chinese culture. It has eight levels of development, stressing the diagnosis and treatment of disease. Those who reach the fourth level are said to acquire powers such as greatly enhanced vision and hearing.

Falun Gong, banned in July, mixes Buddhist and Taoist beliefs with meditation and breathing exercises. The group stunned the central government in April when more than 10,000 members protested outside Beijing's Zhongnanhai leadership compound.

China last week denied reports it had detained more than 35,000 members of Falun Gong, saying the figure represented those followers prevented by police from holding gatherings in Beijing.

BEIJING (AP) - Chinese police detained at least nine people Friday in Tiananmen Square, including two women who had struck a pose used by the banned Falun Gong meditation group.

The government has been cracking down on suspected members of the Falun Gong for several months, saying the popular group is a threat to the Communist Party's monopoly on power and social order.

The two women detained had posed in a meditation stance briefly in front of someone taking a picture of a group of Japanese boys on a school trip.

Police, who were patrolling the square in large numbers, put the women into one of half a dozen police vans, and drove them away.

Police also confiscated and broke the disposable camera one of the boys had used to take a picture of the women. They also held a foreign news photographer for an hour of questioning and confiscated his film.

Falun Gong members have been going to the square to protest the government's ban, imposed in July. Some have conducted low-key protests before being whisked away within moments by police.

Because the square is so large and usually filled with tourists, it is impossible to know how many Falun Gong members have been detained there. Police have refused to reveal the number.

The group has drawn millions of followers nationwide since it was founded in 1992, and its teachings draw from Buddhism, Taoism and China's traditional practice of slow-motion exercises and meditation.

BEIJING - More than 150 people have been formally arrested in connectionwith the government crackdown on the Falun Gong spiritual movement, a government official said Wednesday.

He also acknowledged that Falun Gong followers have had more than 35,000 run-ins with the police in the past five months, the first official public tally of the government's intense effort to damp a stubborn group it has labeled ``an evil cult.''

But Qian Xiaoqian, an official with the news office of China's state council, dismissed as a ``total fabrication'' reports from a human rights group based in Hong Kong that 35,792 Falun Gong practitioners had been detained since the government banned the group in July.

Qian said that number represents ``the total number of times individuals who attempted to assemble illegally in public places in Beijing since July were persuaded to leave or were taken away from the site.'' He said the number of individuals involved was in fact lower because some people repeatedly violated the ban and had to be dispersed again and again.

Falun Gong, founded in 1992 by a former Chinese government clerk who now lives in New York, combines traditional Chinese exercises and meditation with elements of mystical Buddhism and Taoism. Adherents of the movement, which had millions of followers before the ban, say it enhances both physical and spiritual well-being.

Most run-ins took place in the first three days after the government banned the group in July, forcing the popular movement to go underground. Apparently many people were told by the police to disperse while in public parks, where Falun Gong followers customarily gathered to exercise.

But there was a spate of detentions in the last six weeks in Tiananmen Square, as supporters from other parts of China and even a few from overseas have intermittently staged small silent protests to try to win the group official recognition.

Chinese practitioners from outside Beijing have generally been sent to their hometowns, where they receive ``education'' from local authorities, officials here have said.

The number of followers of Falun Gong, an ephemeral group that claims to have no formal organization in a country where the government tightly controls information, is hard to determine.

Earlier this week the Information Center for Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China, which is based in Hong Kong, released statistics from what it called a top secret government report on the group and the effort to eliminate it. The rights group said the report was delivered last Friday to the Standing Committee of the Communist Party Politburo by a senior party official, Li Lanqing.

It quoted Li as saying that 35,792 Falun Gong practitioners had been detained. Most _ 26,003 _ were detained between July 20 and July 22. But according to the center, the report said another 4,230 people were detained during the last week of October.

During that week, members of the National People's Congress were meeting to pass a new anti-cult law. In response, a steady stream of Falun Gong members from all over China straggled into Tiananmen Square, where they sat or performed their exercises in silent protest until they were led away by the police.

On the vast stage of Tiananmen, always crowded with tourists, it was difficult to estimate how many practitioners had actually been taken away. Detentions of handfuls of people occurred here and there, sprinkled over the course of any given day. They were quick and usually peaceful, though some detainees said they had been mistreated, an accusation the police denied.

While Qian did not dispute the total number of more than 35,000 encounters with the police, he said it did not represent the number of detentions, which have been far fewer.

Most of the 150-plus Falun Gong practitioners who have been formally charged are awaiting trial on charges of violating the new anti-cult law, which allows for lengthy prison terms.

But another larger group has been sent without trial to ``re-education though labor'' camps, and others remain in short-term detention, rights groups have said. The Information Center in Hong Kong estimates that there are probably 1,000 followers in labor camps.

Qian did not give any numbers for such groups, although he and other officials have previously insisted that members have not been mistreated by the police.

Although Qian said the outcome of the government's efforts had ``been good,'' it is clear that the group's more devoted members are loath to give up Falun Gong and that many continue to practice at home.

The Hong Kong rights group said Li ackowledged as much. ``Since July 20 there has not been a single day free from worry,'' the center quoted him as saying.

MACAU, Dec 2, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) A Macau Falungong member has been detained in China as authorities step up alert against anyone who might disrupted Macau's return to Chinese rule, his wife said Thursday.

Zhang Yuhui was taken into custody on November 10 in Kaiping city of Guangdong province, the Hong Kong-based Information Centre of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China said in a statement.

His wife told AFP he has been held for nearly one month, with no contact with his family.

"He didn't murder anyone or set fire to anything. He was just practicing Falungong to improve his health. He's not even interested in politics," said his wife, who identified herself only as Mrs. Zhang.

She said her husband was on a business trip.

An official at the detention centre where Zhang is held refused to comment.

The information centre said Zhang was arrested because authorities suspected him of trying to organize Falungong protests in Macau with Guangdong practitioners during the Portuguese enclave's return to Chinese sovereignty on December 20.

Chinese authorities are on high alert against any activities that might jeopardise Macau's handover ceremony, which will be attended by President Jiang Zemin as well as a delegation of Chinese leaders.

Zhang's wife said she feared Zhang would not be released like Hong Kong Falungong members were after being arrested for protesting in Beijing.

He remains a Chinese citizen and does not possess a Macau identification card even though he has the right to live and work in Macau because he set up a cleaning business there, she said.

She said Zhang taught Macau residents Falungong and had written letters to the Xinhua news agency, China's representative office in Macau, opposing China's banning of the spiritual group in July.

China considers Falungong the biggest threat to social stability since the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy demonstrations.

The group focuses on traditional Chinese meditation and advocates high moral values. ((c) 1999 Agence France Presse)

HONG KONG, Dec 2, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) China has warned Hong Kong Falungong followers not to promote the movement on the mainland.

The warning came from Wang Fengchao, vice-director of China's official Xinhua news agency in Hong Kong, which is effectively Beijing's representative office in the territory.

The Beijing-backed Wen Wei Po newspaper quoted Wang as saying that in line with "one country, two systems" under which China governs Hong Kong, it was up to the authorities here to decide how to handle the Falungong.

The group is outlawed on the mainland but not in Hong Kong.

But Wang also warned: "Anyone who violates laws on the mainland, must be punished according to the laws on the mainland."

He said the ban on Falungong, which China regards as a heretical cult, was aimed to safeguard social stability and to protect the lives and wealth of the people.

A number of Hong Kong followers of Falungong were detained when they held up one of the group's banners in Beijing last month to protest against the crackdown.

As punishment, they had their "home-return" permits to visit China confiscated.

The Falungong was banned in July in China after it rattled the Chinese authorities by gathering 10,000 people outside the Communist party headquarters in Beijing in April in a silent protest.

The group advocates high moral values and organizes itself around morning meditation exercises.

Since the crackdown began against the Falungong in China, their counterparts in Hong Kong have staged nearly daily exercises outside Xinhua's office here.

BEIJING -- More than 150 people have been formally arrested in connection with the crackdown on the Falun Gong spiritual movement, a government official said Wednesday.
He also acknowledged that Falun Gong followers have had more than 35,000 run-ins with the police in the past five months, the first official public tally of the government's intense effort to damp a stubborn group it has labeled "an evil cult."
But Qian Xiaoqian, an official with the news office of China's state council, dismissed as a "total fabrication" reports from a Hong Kong-based human rights group that 35,792 Falun Gong practitioners had been detained since the government banned the group in July.
Qian said that number represents "the total number of times individuals who attempted to assemble illegally in public places in Beijing since July were persuaded to leave or were taken away from the site." He said the number of individuals involved was in fact lower because some people had to be dispersed again and again.
Falun Gong, founded in 1992, combines traditional Chinese exercises and meditation with elements of mystical Buddhism and Taoism. Adherents of the movement, which had millions of followers before the ban, say it enhances both physical and spiritual well-being.
Most run-ins took place just after the government banned the group in July, apparently in public parks, where Falun Gong followers customarily gathered to exercise.
But there was a spate of detentions in the last six weeks in Tiananmen Square, as supporters from other parts of China and even a few from overseas have intermittently staged small silent protests to try to win the group official recognition.
Chinese practitioners from outside Beijing have generally been sent to their hometowns, where they receive "education" from local authorities, officials here have said.
Earlier this week the Information Center for Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China, which is based in Hong Kong, released statistics from what it called a top secret government report delivered Friday to a Politburo committee by a senior party official, Li Lanqing.
It quoted Li as saying 35,792 Falun Gong practitioners had been detained. Most -- 26,003 -- were detained between July 20 and 22. But according to the center, the report said 4,230 people were detained during the last week of October.
During that week, members of the National People's Congress met to pass a new anti-cult law. In response, a steady stream of Falun Gong members from all over China straggled into Tiananmen Square, where they sat or performed their exercises in silent protest until they were led away by the police.
On the vast stage of Tiananmen, always crowded with tourists, it was difficult to estimate how many practitioners were taken away. Detentions of handfuls of people occurred here and there over the course of any given day. They were quick and usually peaceful, though some detainees said they had been mistreated, an accusation the police denied.
While Qian did not dispute the total number of more than 35,000 encounters with the police, he said it did not represent the number of detentions, which have been far fewer.
Most of the 150-plus Falun Gong practitioners who have been formally charged are being accused of violating the new anti-cult law, which allows for lengthy prison terms.
But another larger group has been sent without trial to "re-education though labor" camps, and others remain in short-term detention, rights groups have said. The Hong Kong center estimates that there are probably 1,000 followers in labor camps.
Qian did not give any numbers for such groups.
Although Qian said the outcome of the government's efforts had "been good," it is clear that the group's more devoted members are loath to give up Falun Gong and that many continue to practice at home.
The Hong Kong rights group said Li acknowledged as much. "Since July 20 there has not been a single day free from worry," the center quoted him as saying."

BEIJING, Dec 2 (Reuters) - China on Thursday denied reports it had detained more than 35,000 members of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement, saying the figure represented those followers who were prevented by police from holding gatherings in Beijing.
The Hong Kong-based Information Centre of Human Rights & Democratic Movement in China said this week Beijing had detained at least 35,792 sect members between July 20 and October 30.
``This figure of 35,792 represents all those cases in which people who had tried to attend illegal gatherings in public places in Beijing and were told to leave or were taken away from the scene,'' a Chinese cabinet spoksman said, quoting police data.
``These people were not and are not detained,'' Qian Xiaoqian, director general of the State Council Information Office, told reporters. He said the tally counted each time a follower tried to attend a Falun Gong rally and was stopped.
Thousands of followers of Falun Gong, which China banned in July, flocked to Beijing in late October in an unsuccessful bid to stop parliament from declaring the sect an ``evil cult.''
Witnesses said most Falun Gong protesters were cleared from Beijing's Tiananmen Square without resisting, but some were kicked and dragged away by their hair. The government has said the protesters were questioned and sent back to their home towns.

FALUN GONG CASES DETAILED

Qian said that by November 22, at least 150 people had been arrested or were being sought on charges ranging from disturbing social order to stealing state secrets.
The figure included founder Li Hongzhi, China's most wanted man, who now lives in the United States, he said.
It also included people who had sold the sect's books or officials who had shared state secrets with the group, he added.
Qian said prosecution data showed China had issued indictments in 20 cases, involving 44 people, for Falun Gong-related crimes by November 28. Charges included causing the deaths of followers, using a cult to sabotage the law, disturbing social order and leaking state secrets, he said.
The government has blamed Falun Gong for the deaths of about 1,400 practitioners, saying the sect refused to allow them to seek medical care for serious illnesses.
Falun Gong, which mixes Buddhist and Taoist beliefs with meditation and breathing exercises designed to harness inner energy and heal, claims 100 million members worldwide.
Beijing says it had two million adherents inside China but many had been persuaded to quit since the government crackdown.
China's Communist rulers saw Falun Gong as one of the biggest threats to their grip on power after more than 10,000 members staged a surprise, silent protest outside Beijing's Zhongnanhai leadership compound in April to demand official recognition.

TRIAL DUE FOR SENIOR POLICE OFFICIAL

Falun Gong has burrowed its way into the ranks of the Communist Party, the government and the military.
Qian said four former senior government officials, whose arrest in connection with Falun Gong was reported in August, had been charged with crimes including using a cult to sabotage the law, as well as possessing and leaking state secrets.
They included a former deputy director at the public security ministry, Li Chang, and former railways ministry official Wang Zhiwen. Both were thought to be Li Hongzhi's lieutenants.
It was not clear when their trials would begin, but analysts have said they could face life imprisonment if convicted.
State media reported in August that Li Chang had orchestrated a protest outside the state-owned Beijing Television in May 1998.
A court on the island province of Hainan rejected the appeals of four sect leaders on Tuesday, upholding jail terms of up to 12 years for the first Falun Gong activists to be convicted since the government banned the movement in July.

BEIJING (AP) - China today denied reports that more than 35,000 members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement have been detained in Beijing since the group was banned four months ago.
The figure instead represented the number of times followers were stopped by police, said Qian Xiaoqian, a spokesman for the State Council, China's Cabinet.
Police in the capital prevented 35,792 Falun Gong followers from holding gatherings in Beijing. The number was a tally of each time a follower was told to leave or was taken away and could include repeat offenses, he said.
Qian confirmed that Li Chang and three others accused of being top organizers of the group under founder Li Hongzhi have been formally charged with crimes, bringing them closer to trial.
A trial for Falun Gong activists was scheduled for Friday in the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court, a court official confirmed. He declined to give information about the trial, and Qian did not discuss it.
With Li Hongzhi in exile in New York and out of the communist government's reach, a trial against Li Chang or the other three accused ringleaders - Wang Zhiwen, Ji Liewu and Yao Jie - would be the most important Falun Gong prosecution to date.
The four were key leaders of the group in Beijing. The government claims they were at the top of a highly organized hierarchy that took directions from founder Li Hongzhi and could mobilize followers nationwide.
The state-run Xinhua News Agency in October announced the four were charged with ``organizing a cult to undermine the implementation of law.'' Li, Yao and Wang were also charged with violating the state secrets law, and Ji and Yao with running illegal businesses.
Since the communist government banned the group in July, thousands of rank-and-file followers have been told to recant their beliefs. A Hong Kong-based human rights group estimates that 2,000 members have been sent to labor camps for defying the ban or trying to appeal to the government in Beijing.
The group, the Information Center of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China, reported Monday that Li Lanqing, a vice premier and member of the Communist Party's supreme decision-making body, said in a speech that 35,792 detentions took place in Beijing between July and October.
In denying that report, Qian, the government spokesman, said more than 150 Falun Gong followers had been arrested or were being sought on charges ranging from stealing state secrets to disturbing social order. He did not indicate how many of those 150 were living abroad or on the run.
Qian also said prosecutors have issued indictments in 20 Falun Gong cases involving 44 people as of Nov. 28.
Li, a former government clerk, founded Falun Gong in 1992, drawing on ideas from Buddhism, Taoism and China's traditional practice of slow-motion exercises and meditation. Practitioners say Falun Gong promotes health and morality.
The government, however, has declared Falun Gong the most serious threat to its rule since the 1989 democracy demonstrations that spread from Beijing to other cities.
Thousands of Falun Gong followers have traveled to Beijing in recent months to try to protest the crackdown and urge authorities to retract the ban. Many staged low-key protests in vast Tiananmen Square that were quickly stopped by police.
The Information Center reported today that Zhang Yuhui, a Falun Gong activist from the Portuguese colony of Macau, near Hong Kong, was detained on Nov. 10 in the bordering Chinese province of Guangdong and has not been released.
The center said Zhang frequently posted comments on Chinese Internet forums criticizing the crackdown and used e-mail to keep in touch with Falun Gong members in China.

HONG KONG, Dec 2 (Reuters) - China has arrested a Macau member of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement and may sentence him after the Portuguese-run enclave returns to China this month, a Hong Kong human rights group said on Thursday.
Police detained Zhang Yuhui on November 10 in Kaiping, Guangdong province, on suspicion that he was liaising with Falun Gong followers to organise protests during Macau's return to Chinese rule on December 20, said the Information Centre of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China.
``They were afraid he would help organise protests or other activities whether in Macau or in other nearby mainland cities,'' a spokesman for the centre said.
``Chinese officials also said Zhang would not be allowed any visitors at least till 20 days later (from Thursday). This means he will be held at least until after the handover.''
Zhang, one of the most active Falun Gong members in Macau, has written essays criticising China's crackdown on Falun Gong and has been in contact with members on mainland China by e-mail.
Macau has about 200 Falun Gong members but it has not made any stand on the legal status of the group.
China banned the Falun Gong in July and has vowed to wipe out what it sees as a threat to communist rule. In April, over 10,000 Falun Gong members had staged a surprise, silent protest outside Beijing's Zhongnanhai leadership compound.
Falun Gong mixes Buddhist and Taoist beliefs with meditation and breathing exercises.

BEIJING, Dec 2 (Reuters) - The mayor of Seattle has scrapped plans to honour the leader of the Falun Gong spiritual movement under pressure from China, Chinese state media said on Thursday.
U.S. followers of Falun Gong said on Monday Seattle Mayor Paul Schell had agreed to designate days honouring Falun Gong and its Chinese founder, Li Hongzhi, the China Daily said.
But Chinese Ambassador to the United States Li Zhaoxing, attending World Trade Organisation talks in Seattle, met Schell and persuaded him to revoke his endorsement, the newspaper said.
Schell told the ambassador he was ``embarrassed by making such a careless proclamation,'' the newspaper said in an article titled ``Falun Gong Muffled in U.S. City.''
He later told the ambassador in a telephone call the endorsement had been cancelled, the newspaper said. Schell also offered to send a formal letter of apology to the Chinese government, it added.
Seattle city officials were not immediately available for comment.
China outlawed the popular movement in July after practitioners demanded government recognition of their faith in a series of bold protests, including a gathering of 10,000 followers at the central leadership compound in Beijing in April.

CHINA SEES GRAVE THREAT

China has said the group poses a grave threat to Communist Party rule and foments social instability by spreading superstitious beliefs.
It has mounted a sweeping campaign against the group and arrested at least 150 of its leaders. Several members have already been jailed for up to 12 years and an unknown number sent without trial to labour camps.
Li Hongzhi founded Falun Gong in China in 1991, but moved to New York six years ago. He is now China's most wanted man.
Falun Gong mixes elements of Buddhism and Daoism with Chinese physical and breathing exercises.
Li Hongzhi says adherents can cure diseases and acquire supernatural powers by harnessing the force of an invisible revolving wheel he places in the abdomens of followers.
He has railed against a world he sees as corrupted by science and immorality and near the brink of catastrophe.
U.S. mayors are routinely swamped with requests by groups for honour proclamations and other forms of official recognition.
Mayor Schell told the Chinese ambassador he knew nothing about Falun Gong when he signed the order proclaiming ``Falun Dafa and Li Hongzhi days,'' the China Daily said. Falun Dafa is another name for Falun Gong.
In July, San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown also cancelled a proclamation honouring Li Hongzhi just days after China banned the group, citing fears the proclamation ``would be misinterpreted.''