BEIJING, Jan 20 (AFP) - China is to begin heavily scrutinizing hundreds of health and spiritual groups that practice traditional Chinese meditation exercises, for fear they will turn into Falungong-style movements, state media reported Thursday.
The China Youth Daily quoted an official from the ministry of civil affairs as saying the ministry has drawn up measures to deal with the groups, but the measures are awaiting approval from the central government.
Wu Zhongze, head of the ministry's civilian organizations management bureau, said the government will soon prevent the groups from registering, which gives them legal status, and will limit their activities.
Groups already established will be forced to disband.
Wu said many problems exist with the "qigong" groups in China, including their practice of spreading feudalisim, superstition and pseudo-science, the paper said.
The groups also publish illegal publications, fool people into giving them money and set up illegal organizations, Wu said.
The report cited Wu saying the government must immediately deal with these problems.
Frank Lu, director of the Hong Kong-based Information Centre of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China, said the report confirms information he had learned from his contacts that the Chinese government has decided to crack down on "qigong" groups.
"This shows the government is really worried. They're so afraid these groups will turn into another Falungong," Lu said.
"These groups are not much different from Falungong. Some of them have hundreds of thousands of members all over China and they've got a leader that all the practitioners follow." Falungong, like other "qigong" groups teach Buddhist and Taoist style meditation that focus on improving physical and moral health through traditional breathing exercises that have roots in martial arts.
There are approximately 70 schools of qigong in China and about 2,000 qigong groups that teach some form of qigong, Lu said.
Since the crackdown on Falungong, many qigong groups have been prevented from gathering in public parks, holding promotion seminars to generate new members, and even displaying their logos, Lu said.
"They're basically not allowing people to practice," Lu said. "This is going to be a big impact on society. There are 50 million who practice qigong in China."
The Falungong movement, which claims to have 100 million members worldwide with 80 million in China, rattled the government when 10,000 of its members surrounded the leaders' compound in Beijing in a protest against arrests of several members.
The government considers the group the biggest threat to political and social stability since the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations.

The head of a qi gong group has been jailed for two years for practising medicine without a licence in Zhejiang province, a court official said yesterday.
Chen Jinlong, a leader of Zhong Gong, was convicted in Sanmen county court on January 10, his 51st birthday, the official said.
The sentencing of Chen, the first qi gong leader to be convicted, was a clear indication that the authorities were prepared to label all qi gong groups "evil cults", as it had with the spiritual Falun Gong movement, human rights activists said.
The family of a patient had filed a lawsuit against Mr Chen, accusing him of malpractice which resulted in the unidentified victim becoming deranged.
A Hong Kong-based rights group said Chen was accused of aggravating the illnesses of some patients after he tried to cure them by using qi gong methods, meditative exercises similar to those adopted by the Falun Gong, which was banned last July.
The court highlighted a case in which a patient, identified as Mr Huang, ended up in hospital for three months after Chen tried to cure him by using qi gong, the information Centre of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China said.
In December, hundreds of police closed down Zhong Gong's largest training school in Mei county, Shaanxi province, forcing out about 2,000 practitioners, according to the centre.
The authorities have turned the school into a prison.
Zhong Gong was founded in 1988. Its ranks swelled to about 20 million in the years following the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy movement after state media heaped praise on traditional Chinese culture in an attempt to curb Western influences, the centre said.
Its extensive network was said to have alarmed the authorities even before a sit-in by Falun Gong members outside the Communist Party's Zhongnanhai headquarters in Beijing last April.
A circular issued by the State Council at the end of last year restricted the expansion of all qi gong groups.
The centre estimated there were about 100 million qi gong practitioners on the mainland.
On Monday, the Politburo member in charge of law and order, Luo Gan, said the struggle against destabilising elements would escalate this year.

BEIJING, Jan. 19 -- A leader of one of China's largest meditative healing societies has been sentenced to prison for illegally practicing medicine, the latest move in the government's tortured effort to determine which such groups should be allowed and which should be banned as superstitious cults.
Last week a court in the eastern province of Zhejiang sentenced Chen Jinlong, 51, the local leader of the Zhong Gong movement, to two years for providing medical care without proper qualifications and harming patients, a human rights monitor in Hong Kong reported. Court officials confirmed the verdict.
Zhong Gong was founded in 1988, four years earlier than the similarly popular Falun Gong movement, which was banned last July as an "evil cult" after more than 10,000 members held an illegal demonstration in Beijing.
Like hundreds of others that have sprung up in the last 20 years in China, the two groups claim to harness the body's qi, or vital forces, through traditional meditation and physical exercises known as qigong to fight disease and promote spiritual well-being.
Belief in the healing powers of qigong are widespread in China. But after banning Falun Gong in July -- clearly fearful that the organization posed a threat to Communist Party power -- the government charged that its leaders had led many ill followers to their deaths by urging them to avoid conventional medicine.
Like Falun Gong, Zhong Gong was started by a charismatic individual with his own embellished variant of traditional qi concepts, offering meditative exercises to promote health and enlightenment. Its full name translates as China Health Care and Wisdom Enhancement Gong.
The founder, Zhang Hongbao, now 45, and his movement became well known, by some accounts drawing tens of millions of followers at its peak in the early 1990's.
In that period the group often received favorable attention in the official media, said Lu Siqing, director of the Information Center of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China, based in Hong Kong. Press accounts in 1992 even said that President Jiang Zemin had sought the aid of a Zhong Gong master to treat arthritis and back pain, Mr. Lu said.
At the same time, as a fast-growing movement outside the control of the Communist Party, Zhong Gong has had occasional run-ins with the authorities, reports over the years indicate, with regional offices sometimes closed down.
But Mr. Zhang, the founder, may have seemed too well established or his threat to the party too indirect for the authorities to mount the sort of all-out suppression campaign being visited on Falun Gong, which now has hundreds of organizers facing prison and its exiled leader under indictment.
In the wake of the Falun Gong crackdown, officials have intensified their scrutiny of other qigong groups, including Zhong Gong.
In December the police closed down the Zhong Gong society's largest training school, in Shaanxi Province, dispersing about 2,000 students, the information center in Hong Kong reported.
Mr. Zhang remains in China and apparently has not been arrested, but he is believed to be under close watch and his followers will not divulge his whereabouts, Mr. Lu said.
It is not yet clear whether Zhong Gong will be declared an illegal cult, as Falun Gong was, or subjected to a more selective grinding down by the authorities.

The top security official has vowed to push ahead with the crackdown on the Falun Gong spiritual movement and to give priority to fighting official corruption, state press reported yesterday.
Luo Gan, head of the central committee's politics and law committee, laid out his priorities for the year in a speech on Monday, the People's Daily reported.
"We will continue to deepen the work on ideological education of the practitioners of Falun Gong and strike against, in accordance with law, the key organisers and die-hard followers of the sect and the illegal criminal activities of other sects," he said.
Mr Luo is seen as the prime mover behind last July's banning of the group that has been labelled the biggest threat to Communist Party power since the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests.
Since the crackdown was launched, more than 5,000 followers of the group have been sentenced without trial to administrative detention.
About 300 have been tried and sentenced to jail terms, according to the Hong Kong-based Information Centre of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China.
The sect practises breathing and meditation exercises and has advocated high moral values and spiritual purity as the key to good health.
Mr Luo put fighting economic corruption at the top of the Government's police work for 2000.
"We will strike hard at all illegal economic activities that endanger the reform and development of the state-owned enterprises and we will hit hard at those criminals who steal state-enterprise machinery and destroy the economic order," he said.

BEIJING (AP) - China's government is preparing to extend a crackdown on cults to another popular health and meditation group, after a court sentenced one of the group's leaders to two years in jail on charges of illegally practicing medicine, a rights group said Wednesday.
Chen Jinlong was sentenced last week by a court in Sanmen county in eastern Zhejiang province, the Hong Kong-based Information Center of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China said.
Chen was the provincial organizer of Zhong Gong, a popular type of traditional breathing, meditation and health exercises known as Qigong that are practiced by millions of Chinese.
Chinese authorities have been conducting a widespread crackdown for months against Falun Gong, another Qigong movement that the leadership considered a danger to Communist Party rule.
The court charged that as a Qigong master, Chen treated the sick even though he wasn't qualified as a doctor. Some of his patients grew sicker, including one surnamed Huang who was hospitalized for three months, the Information Center said.
In December, several hundred police also raided and closed down Zhong Gong's biggest training center, in central China's Shaanxi province, and expelled 2,000 people who were studying there, the group said.
It said Chinese authorities were preparing to brand the group a cult - in effect banning it. The legislature last year tightened anti-cult laws as part of the crackdown on the banned group Falun Gong.
Zhong Gong was founded in 1988 by 45-year-old Zhang Hongbao and grew rapidly to 20 million members. President Jiang Zemin even invited a Zhong Gong master to treat him in 1992 for arthritis and neck problems, the group said.
But eventually officials feared Zhong Gong's growth could undermine Communist Party authority, and began investigating it in 1997, the Information Center said.

BEIJING, Jan 19 (Reuters) - A Chinese court has sentenced a man who claimed healing powers similar to the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement to two years in prison for practising medicine without a licence, a court official said on Wednesday.
Chen Jinlong, leader of the Zhong Gong in the eastern coastal province on Zhejiang, was convicted in Sanmen county court on January 10, the day he turned 51, the official said by telephone. He has 10 days to appeal.
Zhong Gong is a form of qigong -- an array of meditation and breathing exercises designed to harness energy in the human body and heal oneself or others.
The family of one patient filed a lawsuit against Chen, accusing him of malpractice and causing the unidentified victim to become deranged, the court official said.
Falun Gong -- a mishmash of qigong, Buddhism and Taoism -- was banned last year as an ``evil cult'' after more than 10,000 practitioners besieged the government leadership compound in Beijing to demand official status for their faith.
The government said 1,400 people had died by following Falun Gong precepts for self-healing rather than seeking medical help.

CRACKDOWN ON QIGONG GROUPS

The Hong Kong-based Information Centre of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China said Chen's conviction was a sign the Communist Party was prepared to label all qigong groups ``evil cults."
In December, hundreds of police closed down Zhong Gong's largest training base in Mei county in the northwestern province of Shaanxi, forcing about 2,000 practitioners to disperse, the rights watchdog said.
Authorities turned the school into a prison, it said.
The Communist Party, obsessed with stability, views qigong groups as a latent threat to its grip on power.
The ranks of Zhong Gong, founded in 1988, swelled to about 20 million in the years after the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown on demonstrations for democracy because state media heaped praise on traditional Chinese culture in a bid to curb Western culture, the centre said.
There are about 100 million qigong practitioners in China.

91 YEARS OLD WHEN FREE

Last week, a 74-year-old retired Chinese air force general who taught many current commanders was jailed for 17 years in a secret court-martial for links to Falun Gong, according to the centre.
The sentence imposed on Yu Changxin on January 6 was among the harshest slapped on leaders of the movement and angered many fellow retired generals, it said.
Yu, a retired lieutenant general who held a rank equivalent to a cabinet minister, is the most senior of about a dozen people jailed for links to the movement.
About 300 Falun Gong leaders face trial, while 5,000 others have been sent to labour camps to undergo ``re-education,'' administrative punishment that requires no judicial process, the centre said. Several foreign members have been expelled.
Falun Gong leader Li Hongzhi, who lives in exile in the United States, says his movement is apolitical and poses no threat to Communist rule. He preaches salvation from a world corrupted by science, technology and decadence.

BEIJING: A retired mainland air force general who taught many current commanders was jailed for 17 years in a secret court-martial for links to the outlawed Falun Gong movement, a Hong Kong-based human-rights group has said.
The sentence imposed on 74-year-old Yu Changxin on 6 January was among the harshest slapped on leaders of the movement and angered many fellow retired generals, said the Information Centre of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China.
The retired lieutenant general, who held a rank equivalent to a provincial governor or a cabinet minister, is the most senior of about a dozen people jailed for links to the movement.
About 300 Falun Gong leaders face trial, while another 5,000 have been sent to labour camps to undergo ``re-education'', administrative punishment that requires no judicial process, the centre said. Several foreign members have been expelled.
Yu, a former ace who went on to train air force pilots, is expected to appeal.
He has close ties with many retired air force generals who are disgruntled over the harsh sentence.
``It has gone too far,'' one unidentified general was quoted as saying.
The centre said authorities suspected Yu of masterminding a 10,000-strong peaceful protest outside Beijing's Zhongnanhai leadership compound in April that shocked the authorities and led to the ban on the group three months later.
Yu had nothing to do with the April protest, , the centre said, but was still arrested in July and convicted on orders from President Jiang Zemin.
The Air Force Command Academy professor was also accused of helping the Falun Gong expand its membership and held responsible for the deaths of practitioners who refused medical help when ill.
Yu has been a Falun Gong practitioner since 1992.
Yu was also accused of helping the sect find publishers for books by the movement's leader, Li Hongzhi.
The Falun Gong has burrowed its way into the ranks of the Communist Party, the government and the military. It has also attracted support from the most vulnerable sections of society, including the unemployed, the elderly and the sick.

A Communist Party official in the armed police and a leading politician in the southwestern city of Chongqing have been removed from duty after protesting at the Government's crackdown on the Falun Gong spiritual movement, human rights activists said.
Police Major Yu Fenglai was taken into custody after demonstrating against the crackdown in Beijing on January 2, the Information Centre of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China reported.
Yu handed over a petition to the State Council Complaints Bureau before being sent back to Shandong province under guard, the Hong Kong-based centre said.
In Chongqing, Zhou Jiaying, a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, was relieved of her duties onMonday after protesting against the crackdown.

BEIJING (AP) - A high-ranking Chinese Air Force official has been sentenced to 17 years in prison on charges he played a key role in the banned Falun Gong meditation movement, a rights group said today.
Yu Changxin, 74, a former professor at the Air Force Command Institute, was tried in secret Jan. 6 by the Air Force Military Court, the Hong Kong-based Information Center of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China said.
Yu, who held a cabinet minister-level rank, was convicted of using a cult to undermine the law, the center said in a statement faxed to reporters.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Defense refused to confirm the report.
Yu was accused of being a power behind the scenes and helping Falun Gong founder Li Hongzhi to publish and sell the group's materials, the Information Center said.
Li lives in exile in New York.
Yu joined Li's movement in 1992, the year it started in China, the group said. Li attracted millions of Chinese across the country with his teachings, which borrowed from Buddhism, Taoism and qigong, a Chinese practice of meditation and exercise meant to harness unseen forces to improve health.
The government banned Falun Gong in July, alarmed by its organizational ability and large following, which Li says includes many Communist Party members.
The Information Center estimated 5,000 Falun Gong followers have been sent without trial to labor camps and about 300 others face trial.
In the biggest trial of organizers so far, four people were sentenced Dec. 26 to up to 18 years in prison.

BEIJING, Jan 14 (Reuters) - A retired Chinese air force general who taught many current commanders was jailed for 17 years in a secret court-martial for links to the outlawed Falun Gong spiritual movement, a Hong Kong-based human rights group said on Friday.
The sentence imposed on 74-year-old Yu Changxin on January 6 was among the harshest slapped on leaders of the movement and angered many fellow retired generals, said the Information Centre of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China.
Yu, a retired lieutenant general who held a rank equivalent to a provincial governor or a cabinet minister, is the most senior of about a dozen people jailed for links to the movement, banned by the Communist Party as an ``evil cult'' last year.
About 300 Falun Gong leaders face trial, while another 5,000 have been sent to labour camps to undergo ``re-education,'' administrative punishment that requires no judicial process, the centre said. Several foreign members have been expelled.
The government had no immediate comment on the report. Yu's family could not be reached for comment.

TRAINED AIR FORCE PILOTS

Yu, a former ace who went on to train air force pilots, is expected to appeal, the centre said.
He has close ties with many retired air force generals who are disgruntled over the harsh sentence, it said in a statement. Many active generals were his former students.
``It has gone too far,'' one unidentified general was quoted as saying.
The centre said the authorities suspected Yu of masterminding a 10,000-strong peaceful protest outside Beijing's Zhongnanhai leadership compound in April that shocked the authorities and led to the ban on the group three months later.
Yu had nothing to do with the April protest, but was still arrested in Julyand convicted on orders from President Jiang Zemin, the centre alleged.
The Air Force Command Academy professor was also accused of helping Falun Gong expand its membership and held responsible for the deaths of practitioners who refused medical help when ill.
Yu has been practising Falun Gong -- a mishmash of Buddhism, Taoism, meditation and breathing exercises designed to harness energy in the body and to heal -- since 1992.
Falun Gong claims 100 million members worldwide. China puts its domestic membership at two million.
China says the movement has caused the deaths of about 1,400 adherents who tried to heal themselves by practising Falun Gong instead of seeking medical help.
Yu was also accused of helping Falun Gong find publishers for books by the movement's leader, Li Hongzhi, who lives in self-imposed exile in the United States.
Li insists Falun Gong is apolitical and poses no threat to Communist rule. He preaches salvation from a world corrupted by science, technology and decadence.

PARAMILITARY MAJOR DETAINED

Falun Gong has burrowed its way into the ranks of the Communist Party, the government and the military. It has also attracted support from the most vulnerable sections of society, including the unemployed, the elderly and the sick.
The centre said Yu Fenglai, a major in the paramilitary People's Armed Police in the eastern province of Shandong, was detained on January 2 for practising Falun Gong in Beijing's vast Tiananmen Square, the political heart of China, in defiance of the ban on the movement.
Yu Fenglai, who is not related to Yu Changxin, faces expulsion from the PAP and the Communist Party, the centre said.
Last month, a Beijing court sentenced four Falun Gong leaders, including a former deputy director of the Ministry of Public Security, to up to 18 years in prison on charges ranging from stealing state secrets to causing deaths.

ACTIVITIES by the mainland-banned Falun Gong or satirical artistes will not be ``deterred'' in Macau if they do not disrupt social stability, a government source says.
When asked if sect members in Macau could enjoy more tolerance under the ``one country, two systems'' principle, the source said: ``Activities would not be deterred if they do not affect social stability.''
The enclave's security chief has, however, declined to say whether such activities would be banned.
Macau authorities arrested street-drama artistes and members of the spiritual sect during last month's handover celebrations.
They were later released without being told what laws they had infringed.
Under the new SAR's Basic Law, the rights of freedom of speech, artistic creation and religious belief are guaranteed.
In an interview with the Hong Kong Standard, Secretary for Security Cheong Kuoc-va said the Falun Gong members were arrested as they were non-residents of Macau.
``Macau residents have the right to protest, but tourists visiting Macau have no such right and the police chief can use his powers (to take action).
``Macau is an open city and we welcome visitors in general for the development of our tourism industry. But if overseas visitors come to Macau to create trouble, of course we won't welcome them,'' he said, pointing out that a provision in the enclave's law states that ``only residents of Macau have the right of demonstration.''
The Falun Gong followers who were detained and later expelled from Macau last month had come from the mainland, Hong Kong, Japan, the United States and Australia.
Mr Cheong refused to give a direct reply as to whether the sect would be banned in the enclave in future.
He said police would pay attention to anything that was ``unusual'', especially after Beijing had branded the Falun Gong an evil cult.
``The Falun Gong is not registered in Macau and I understand the mainland authorities consider it to be an evil cult. I have discussed the matter with religious people, such as Catholics and Buddhists, and some think the Falun Gong is different from traditional religions.
``A Catholic told me he saw a Falun Gong member and he looked abnormal,'' Mr Cheong said.
Mr Cheong's statement that foreigners have no right of protest in Macau was bitterly criticised by the pro-democracy camp.
Municipal councillor Au Kam-san pointed out that former governor Vasco Rocha Vieira could not have participated in rallies staged before the handover by East Timorese in support of independence for the former Portuguese colony if Macau laws did not allow foreigners to hold protests.
Pro-democracy legislator Antonio Ng Kuok-cheong described the crackdown on Falun Gong members as a case of ``political censorship''.
He said the right of non-residents to hold peaceful gatherings was safeguarded by the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights as enshrined in Article 40 of Macau's Basic Law.
On the arrests of artistes for staging street plays during the early hours of the handover, Mr Cheong said he did not have details and could not comment.
As to whether art performances with political overtones would be allowed, Mr Cheong replied: ``It's hard to say. The police will act according to each individual case. Each case would get its own treatment.''
Mr Au and Mr Ng believed it's too early to tell whether the arrests of artistes and Falun Gong members would hamper freedom of speech and expression after the handover.
``The security forces were extremely tense right before and after the handover,'' Mr Au said.

MELBOURNE, Jan 10 (AFP) - The mother of an Australian member of the Falungong sect detained in China Monday appealed to Chinese authorities to release her daughter and two other Australians.
"These children are not into anything fanatical. They are not stupid," Julianna Turcu said.
Turcu said her daughter, Ana Caterina Turcu, and two friends had planned to deliver a letter to the Chinese government expressing concern at the Chinese crackdown on Falungong practitioners.
Ana Caterina Turcu and twin brothers Simon and Nicholas Vershaka Sunday delivered a letter addressed to President Jiang Zemin and Premier Zhu Rongji to the Beijing headquarters of the government news agency, Xinhua.
They alerted foreign journalists that they would be delivering the letter. Photographers and journalists at the scene saw the three go into the building, but did not see them come out.
Turcu's mother urged Beijing to release the trio quickly and a spokeswoman for the department of foreign affairs and trade said Australian officials in Beijing were seeking consular access to the three.
Turcu said her daughter and the two Vershaka brothers had been Falungong practitioners for about two years and were alarmed at the treatment of Chinese members.
"I subscribe to what they're doing (by delivering the letter). I'm a supporter too," Turcu said.
Her daughter thought very carefully before deciding to deliver the letter, as she realised it could be dangerous. "She deliberated for two weeks and she was very aware that she had to think it through," Turcu said.
In a copy of the letter faxed to AFP, the Australians asked the Chinese government not to misunderstand the spiritual group, which China outlawed in July.
"Falun Dafa (the teachings of Falungong) is not a political movement. Any individuals who show any interest in politics, fame and gain cannot be considered Falun Dafa practitioners," the Australians said.
China has labelled the group an evil cult and accused the exiled founder Li Hongzhi, who now lives in New York, of causing the deaths of more than 1,400 people by fooling them into believing they could cure their illnesses by following his teachings.
The Australians asked the Chinese leaders to legalise the group and lift the ban. They vowed to continue appealing to the authorities.
Falungong teaches Buddhist-style meditation and promotes health and strong moral values. It claims to have 100 million members worldwide, with 80 million in China.
China considers the group the biggest threat to political and social stability since the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations. A crackdown has been underway against the group since a series of mass demonstrations by it last year.

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) - Chinese officials detained three Australian members of the banned Falun Gong spiritual group for nearly five hours before letting them leave the country, one of them said Monday.
Ana Caterina Turcu said she and her companions were detained and questioned on the last day of a two-week tourist trip to China when they tried to present a letter to government officials protesting the treatment of Falun Gong members there.
Turcu said the three were detained Sunday morning as they delivered the letter to Public Security Bureau officials and were held almost five hours until they were escorted to their flight.
``They wanted to know everything we had done, how long we'd been there, especially where we had been and who we talked to and if we had spoken to other Falun Gong practitioners,'' Turcu said.
Turcu said she and her companions were repeatedly asked for the names of other practitioners.
Falun Gong blends slow-motion meditation exercises and ideas from Taoism, Buddhism and Falun Gong's U.S.-based founder, Li Hongzhi. Practitioners say Falun Gong promotes health and good citizenship.
The Chinese government claims the group is dangerous and has rounded up hundreds, if not thousands, of the sect's members.

BEIJING, Jan 10 (AFP) - Three Australian members of the banned Falungong group believed to have been detained here after urging an end to the ban, have been escorted out of China, the Australian embassy said Monday.
Embassy spokesman Bob Nash said police informed the mission Monday that the trio had left China, and officials in Australia had confirmed their arrival there.
"They were interviewed, questioned and then driven to the airport (by Chinese officials) ... They arrived in Australia safely Monday," Nash said.
It remained unclear whether the three had been detained as police would not confirm what action had been taken against them and the Australians could not be reached for comment.
Ana Caterina Turcu and twin brothers Simon and Nicholas Vereshaka disappeared Sunday morning after delivering a letter to the Beijing headquarters of the government news agency, Xinhua.
They had alerted foreign journalists they would be making the protest, and photographers and journalists at the scene saw the three enter the building, but did not see them leave.
The Australians were asked to stay inside after they delivered their letter and police were later called in, a photographer at the scene said.
Police later escorted the Australians to the airport to catch a return flight they had booked earlier.
In the past two months China has detained several foreign Falungong members who have travelled to the capital to protest the Communist leadership's crackdown on the group.
Hong Kong academic Joseph Cheng said the increasing number of foreign members willing to go to China to protect against the ban will increase pressure on the Chinese leadership, but will not change its tough stance.
"These Falungong followers holding foreign passports obviously understand they're in a more privileged position. It's much less dangerous for them, so the organization relies on them to pressure China and attract media attention," Cheng said.
"But on issues such as this, when the Chinese leadership feels it is being threatened, it gives little regard to international public opinion. And we certainly don't see any sanctions from other countries towards China on this matter."
Detained overseas practitioners are typically released after detentions lasting between a few hours and a day, and sent home.
The latest case is different in that unlike all the earlier protesters, those detained were not ethnic Chinese.
Turcu's mother on Monday told AFP that her daughter and the Vereshaka brothers had been practicing Falungong for about two years and were alarmed by the treatment of Chinese members.
In the letter addressed to President Jiang Zemin and Premier Zhu Rongji, the three asked Jiang and Zhu to not misunderstand the Falungong, which was outlawed in July.
"Falun Dafa (the teachings of Falungong) is not a political movement. Any individuals who show any interest in politics, fame and gain cannot be considered Falun Dafa practitioners," said a copy sent to AFP.
They said they had benefitted from practicing Falungong and could not stand by as China continued to prohibit followers from practicing the group's meditation exercises.
China has labelled the group an evil cult and has accused exiled founder Li Hongzhi, who lives in New York, of causing the deaths of more than 1,400 people by deceiving them into believing they could cure illness by following his teachings, without seeking medical attention.
Falungong teaches Buddhist-style meditation and promotes health and strong moral values. It claims to have 100 million members worldwide, with 80 million in China.
China considers the group the biggest threat to political and social stability since the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy demonstrations.
It was alarmed when 10,000 members held a protest in Beijing last April against the arrest of fellow members. An estimated 36,000 Chinese members have been detained. While most of them have been released, a few thousand are believed to have been sent to prison and labor camps.

CANBERRA, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Three Australian Falun Gong followers knew theyfaced deportation when they delivered a letter on Sunday appealing to leaders in China against the ban on the movement.
Ana Caterina Turcu, 30, said on Monday she and twin brothers Simon and Nicholas Vereshaka, 32, decided to deliver their letter on the final day of a two-week visit to China because they expected an immediate reaction from Chinese authorities.
Authorities questioned her and the brothers, all from Melbourne, for about four and a half hours before driving them to the airport to ensure they left the country on their scheduled 3:00 p.m. flight, Turcu told Reuters.
``We knew that Westerners who go to China to talk about Falun Dafa (the teachings of Falun Gong) being an orthodox system of cultivation (sic) get questioned and then they get deported,'' Turcu she said in a telephone interview from Melbourne.
``I had to be escorted, even when I went to the toilet someone had to be there with me,'' she said.

WELL TREATED IN DETENTION

But she said the Chinese authorities treated them well.
They were not pressed when they refused to answer questions about who had suggested they deliver their written plea to Chinese leaders to reconsider the ban on Falun Gong to the state-run news agency, Xinhua.
``We were treated very well. We felt there was pressure to answer their questions, but if we refused that was the end of that,'' she said.
``We were not frightened because we knew that they had to be very careful with foreigners. We knew that and we didn't want to overstep our boundaries and take advantage of that either.
``We went there in a spirit of communication and cooperation and, as I told the person in charge, we were there personally so that you can see our faces and how much we've benefitted from practising Falun Dafa and how practising truth, compassion and forebearance cannot be an evil thing.''
But Turcu said she doubted very much whether Chinese President Jiang Zemin or Premier Zhu Rongji would ever see the letter that was addressed to them.
The trio, visiting China as tourists, met other Falun Gong practitioners in both Beijing and Xian while there.

AUSTRALIA WARNING SECT SUPPORTERS

Australian Foreign Affairs officials said they were now warning all Falun Gong supporters here about the dangers of promoting their beliefs in China.
In December, three ethnic Chinese Australians were expelled from China after they protested against Beijing's crackdown on the movement.
A month earlier, a Swedish follower was detained briefly along with 14 local followers who were seized at a Falun Gong gathering in southern China.
Falun Gong, which mixes Buddhist and Taoist beliefs with meditation and breathing exercises, says it has 100 million members worldwide.
The Chinese government, which has vowed to wipe out the sect, says it has only two million adherents in China.
The group stunned the government by mounting a 10,000-strong protest by followers outside China's leadership compound in Beijing in April.
Last month a Chinese court sentenced four Falun Gong leaders, including a former deputy director of the Public Security Ministry, to up to 18 years in prison on charges ranging from stealing state secrets to causing deaths.

Fears are held for three Melbourne members of a religious sect who are believed to have been detained in China after they delivered a letter addressed to the President and Premier.
Twin brothers Simon and Nicholas Vereshaka, 32, of North Balwyn, and their companion, Ms Ana Caterina Turcu, took the letter to the Beijing headquarters of the Government's news agency, Xinhua, yesterday morning.
Photographers and journalists at the scene saw them go into the building, but did not see them come out.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said last night the department was aware of the situation and Australian officials in Beijing were investigating.
The trio, who are members of the Falun Gong sect, were asked to remain after they delivered their letter and police were later called in, a photographer at the scene said.
They had planned to catch a flight back to Australia yesterday.
The father of the twins, Mr Leonrd Vereshaka, was last night unaware that his sons had been detained and had been expecting them to arrive home at lunchtime today.
"I knew they were doing the exercise. I didn't take it seriously, they were told (by members of the sect) here that everything would be all right," he said.
In a copy of the letter faxed to journalists, the Australians asked President Jiang Zemin and Premier Zhu Rongji not to misunderstand the spiritual group, which China outlawed in July.
"Falun Dafa (the teachings of Falun Gong) is not a political movement. Any individuals who show any interest in politics, fame and gain cannot be considered Falun Dafa practitioners," the Australians said.
They said they could not stand by as China continued to prohibit Falun Gong practitioners from following its meditation exercises.
"To sit at home and do nothing when we hear the name of Falun Dafa being slandered is not an option for us because what Falun Dafa has given us can never be fully expressed in words," they wrote.
China has labelled the group an evil cult and has accused founder Li Hongzhi, a New York resident, of causing the deaths of more than 1400 people by fooling them into believing they could cure their illnesses by following his teachings without seeking medical attention.
The Australians asked the Chinese leaders to legalise the group and lift the ban. They vowed to continue appealing to the authorities. Chinese officials refused to comment.

BEIJING, Jan 9 (AFP) - Three Australian members of the Falungong sect are believed to have been detained in China after they delivered a letter addressed to President Jiang Zemin and Premier Zhu Rongji expressing concern over the treatment of Chinese practitioners.
Ana Caterina Turcu and twin brothers Simon Vereshaka and Nicholas Vereshaka took their letter to the Beijing headquarters of the government's news agency, Xinhua, Sunday morning.
They had alerted foreign journalists on Saturday that they would be delivering the letter. Photographers and journalists at the scene saw the three go into the building, but did not see them come out.
They were asked to stay inside after they delivered their letter and police were later called in, a photographer at the scene said.
The three Melbourne residents were planning to catch a flight back to Australia on Sunday.
In a copy of the letter faxed to AFP, the Australians asked Jiang and Zhu not to misunderstand the spiritual group, which China outlawed in July.
"Falun Dafa (the teachings of Falungong) is not a political movement. Any individuals who show any interest in politics, fame and gain cannot be considered Falun Dafa practitioners," the Australians said.
They said they had benefitted from practicing Falungong and could not stand by as China continued to prohibit Falungong practitioners from practicing the group's meditation exercises.
"To sit at home and do nothing when we hear the name of Falun Dafa being slandered is not an option for us, because what Falun Dafa has given us can never be fully expressed in words," they wrote.
"So we will continue to uphold and protect the Dafa until this situation is rectified."
China has labeled the group an evil cult and has accused founder Li Hongzhi, a New York resident, of causing the deaths of more than 1,400 people by fooling them into believing they could cure their illnesses by following his teachings, without seeking medical attention.
The Australians asked the Chinese leaders to legalize the group and lift the ban on it being practiced. They vowed to continue appealing to the authorities.
Chinese officials refused to comment on the three Australians. An official at the Australian Embassy in Beijing said its staff would look into the case.
Falungong teaches Buddhist-style meditation and promotes health and strong moral values. It claims to have 100 million members worldwide, with 80 million in China.
China considers the group the biggest threat to political and social stability since the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations. It was alarmed when 10,000 members held a protest in Beijing last April against the arrest of fellow members.

BEIJING, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Three Australian Falun Gong followers were apparently questioned by police on Sunday as they tried to send a letter urging China's top leaders to reconsider their ban of the spiritual movement, witnesses said.
The three, practitioners of the banned meditation sect who were visiting China as tourists, tried to pass the appeal to President Jiang Zemin and Premier Zhu Rongji through the state-run Xinhua news agency, the witnesses said.
The trio from Melbourne, Ana Turco and twin brothers Simon and Nicholas Vereshaka, entered the Beijing headquarters of Xinhua, where they had planned the witnesses said.
It was not immediately clear whether the petitioners were detained or released or if they had made their flight. Their whereabouts since entering Xinhua were unknown.
``The matter is under investigation at this stage and inquiries are being made,'' said an official at the Australian embassy in Beijing, who declined to give further details.
The three are not the first foreign Falun Gong followers to run afoul of the Chinese government since it banned the movement last July and declared it an ``evil cult'' in October.
In December, three ethnic Chinese Australians were expelled from China after they protested against Beijing's crackdown on the movement. A month earlier, a Swedish follower was detained briefly along with 14 local followers who were seized at a Falun Gong gathering in southern China.
Falun Gong, which mixes Buddhist and Taoist beliefs with meditation and breathing exercises, says it has 100 million members worldwide. The Chinese govrenment, which has vowed to wipe out the sect, says it has only two million adherents in China.
The group stunned the government by mounting a 10,000-strong protest by followers outside China's leadership compound in Beijing in April.
Last month a Chinese court sentenced four Falun Gong leaders, including a former deputy director of the Public Security Ministry, to up to 18 years in prison on charges ranging from stealing state secrets to causing deaths.
The government says 1,400 practitioners of Falun Gong have died from suicide or from refusing medical help when ill.
A cabinet spokesman said last year that about 150 Falun Gong members had been arrested through November or were being sought on charges ranging from disturbing social order to stealing secrets.
Hundreds have been sent to labour camps for ``re-education'' -- punishment which requires no court hearing -- and rights groups say at least six followers have died in police custody.

Beijing has drawn up a blacklist of 1,000 Chinese followers of the banned Falun Gong sect living abroad, a human rights group reported yesterday.
"The Chinese Government has set up a special service in charge of drawing up a blacklist of Falun Gong members living abroad to stop them returning to China," the Information Centre of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China said.
Names had been supplied by overseas "secret agents" and handed over to the service, which was made up of officials from the state security ministry or secret police, the national police and border police, the Hong Kong-based centre said.
On New Year's Eve, 12 members of the Falun Gong named on the list were stopped at Beijing airport as they arrived from Japan.
The group, all Chinese nationals, were recognised by border police who were alerted by a computer programme, the centre reported. They were sent back to Japan the next day after being held for 10 hours.
Six Japanese members of the sect managed to reach Beijing, where they held morning exercises on Tiananmen Square on New Year's Day before being swiftly rounded up and expelled.
The sect, which combines traditional breathing exercises with Buddhist-inspired thought and advocates high moral living, was banned on the mainland at the end of July.
It stunned the communist leadership by gathering more than 10,000 followers outside the party headquarters in Beijing in April in a silent protest.
Police have since detained 35,000 followers. Dozens of others continue to defy the authorities by holding sporadic demonstrations.
Four key members of the sect were sentenced on December 26 to between seven and 18 years in prison.

BEIJING, Jan 6 (Reuters) - China has jailed a married couple for up to eight years for leading a cell of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement in central China, state radio said on Thursday.
The Intermediate Peoples' Court in Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, sentenced Xu Xianglan to eight years for illegally organising and attending sect meetings, the radio said.
Her husband, Wang Hansheng, chairman of Shenshen Co, was found guilty of helping her and jailed for six years, it said.
Xu was appointed by the sect's exiled leader, Li Hongzhi, to coordinate activities in Shanghai and Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, it said.
Last month a Chinese court sentenced four Falun Gong leaders, including a former deputy director of the Public Security Ministry, to up to 18 years in prison on charges ranging from stealing state secrets to causing deaths.
Another leader was jailed for four years while four Falun Gong practitioners were ordered to undergo ``re-education through labour,'' the Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China reported recently.
The government says 1,400 practitioners of Falun Gong -- a mishmash of Buddhism, Taoism, meditation and breathing exercises designed to harness inner energy and heal -- have died from suicide or from refusing medical help when ill.
It has accused sect leaders of masterminding a 10,000-strong protest by adherents outside China's leadership compound in Beijing in April -- an action that led authorities to ban the movement in July.
A cabinet spokesman said last year that about 150 Falun Gong members had been arrested through November or were being sought on charges ranging from disturbing social order to stealing secrets.
Hundreds have been sent to labour camps for ``re-education'' -- punishment which requires no court hearing -- and rights groups say at least six followers have died in police custody.

BEIJING (AP) - A couple arrested in the crackdown on the Falun Gong spiritual movement were sentenced Thursday to prison terms of eight and six years in a secret trial in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, a rights group reported.
The Wuhan No. 1 Intermediate People's Court convicted Xu Xianglan and her husband Wang Hansheng of organizing and using a cult to undermine the law in the trial that began on Dec. 23, the Hong Kong-based Information Center of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China reported.
Xu, who was a chief organizer for Falun Gong in central China, was sentenced to eight years in prison and her husband, Wang, to six years, it said.
The court was unable to find evidence to support accusations in state news media that the movement's founder, Li Hongzhi, shared huge profits made by the couple's sales of Falun Gong books and photos, the Information Center said.
It said the couple had not yet been able to discuss an appeal with their lawyer.
Court officials have refused to comment on the case.
The government banned the popular spiritual movement in July, calling it the worst threat to communist control since nationwide democracy demonstrations in 1989.
The Information Center also reported that a former student leader of the 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy protests was sentenced to four years in prison for tax evasion.
Yang Tao, 29, was arrested in Guangzhou city in May on subversion charges for trying to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the June 4, 1989, military assault in which hundreds, perhaps thousands, of unarmed protesters died.
The Tianhe District Court sentenced Yang on Wednesday to four years in prison for evading more than $1,200 in taxes on earnings from his private computer business, after it was unable to find enough evidence to convict him on the subversion charges.
The group said that since Yang's business was small, the government had no records to work from and that police had intimidated witnesses into testifying that he owed more money than he had paid.
Yang, a former history student at prestigious Beijing University, was imprisoned for 18 months after the protests were crushed.

"China jails dissident, two Falun Gong followers"

HONG KONG, Jan 6 (Reuters) - China has sentenced democracy campaigner Yang Tao to four years in jail for tax evasion, a Hong Kong-based human rights group said on Thursday.
A court in southern Guangzhou city handed down the sentence on Wednesday, the Information Centre of Human Rights & Democratic Movement in China said in a statement.
Yang, a student leader in the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy movement, was arrested last May for ``inciting subversion'' after he participated in activities commemorating the 1989 protests.
The movement ended in a bloodbath when Beijing sent in army tanks to crush it, and hundreds, possibly thousands, died.
``Because the authorities did not have sufficient evidence to charge him for subversion, they suddenly charged him in November with evading taxes worth over 10,000 yuan,'' the centre said.
Separately, another Chinese court sent two followers of China's outlawed Falun Gong spiritual movement to jail on Thursday, the centre said.
Wang Hansheng and his wife, Xu Xianglan, were given six- and eight-year jail terms respectively for ``organising and using evil cult organisations,'' the centre said.
China banned the movement in July after its members demanded official recognition of their faith in a series of bold protests, including a gathering of 10,000 which surrounded the central leadership compound in Beijing in April.
Since July, Beijing has arrested at least 150 Falun Gong leaders and jailed nine of them for up to 18 years. It has also sent an unknown number to labour camps without trial and expelled several foreign members of the group.

BEIJING, Jan. 3 - Chinese courts have sentenced two leading figures in China's first opposition party to lengthy jail terms and given a four-year sentence to a leader of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement as the government continued its crackdown on a wide range of dissent.
A Hong Kong-based human rights organization reported today that Tong Shidong, 65, an assistant physics professor at Hunan University, and Liao Shihua, a factory worker and labor organizer in the Hunan provincial capital, Changsha, were convicted of attempting to subvert state authority. The Information Center of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China said Tong was sentenced to 10 years and Liao to six years.
At least 20 people, including veteran dissident Xu Wenli, have been sentenced to jail terms during the government's 13-month suppression of the first attempt to form an opposition party in Communist China. Xu's prison sentence of 13 years is the longest meted out thus far.
Meanwhile, the Information Center said that Li Fujun, a 37-year-old assistant professor at the Xinxiang Medical College in Henan province, was convicted of crimes relating to the Falun Gong movement and given a four-year prison term. The center said Li was convicted Thursday of organizing a protest in Beijing's Tiananmen Square and defending the group's claim that people can cure themselves without the aid of doctors or medicine. Thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have flocked to Beijing and hundreds have demonstrated in Tiananmen Square since China banned the popular group in July.
The center said that since New Year's Day, more than 100 Falun Gong followers have been detained in Beijing as they performed unprecedented acts of civil disobedience in defiance of the ban.
The crackdown on Falun Gong has dwarfed every campaign against dissent in China in the last 10 years except for the bloody suppression of student-led democracy demonstrations around Tiananmen Square in 1989. The Hong Kong rights group has estimated that China has sent as many as 5,000 Falun Gong adherents to labor camps. Last month, it jailed four leaders for up to 18 years after a court found them guilty of manslaughter and stealing state secrets. In November, four other leaders were sentenced to up to 12 years in prison in the southern island province of Hainan.
Falun Gong founder Li Hongzhi, who lives in self-imposed exile in the United States, has denied that his organization has any political agenda. The Communist government, on the other hand, calls Falun Gong an evil cult, bent on destroying Chinese society.

HONG KONG, Jan 4 (Reuters) - China has sentenced an official to four years in jail for leaking a speech by Chinese President Jiang Zemin on outlawing the Falun Gong spiritual movement, a Hong Kong-based human rights group said on Tuesday.
Xu Xinmu, a deputy director at Shijiazhuang city's personnel division in central China, was sentenced on Monday for leaking a state secret, said the Information Centre of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China.
It said Xu, a Falun Gong practitioner, had informed fellow sect members in Shijiazhuang of Jiang's comment in June.
China banned the spiritual movement in July after its members demanded official recognition of their faith in a series of bold protests, including a gathering of 10,000 followers who surrounded the central leadership compound in Beijing in April.
Since July, Beijing has arrested at least 150 Falun Gong leaders and jailed nine of them for up to 18 years. It has also sent an unknown number to labour camps without trial and expelled several foreign members of the group.
The Hong Kong-based group said on Monday China had jailed a leader of the outlawed sect for four years, while more than 100 of the group's adherents had been detained since the New Year.

Standing at the corner of Dartmouth Street and Huntington Avenue yesterday - eyes closed, hands slowly pinwheeling - the people doing their Falun Gong exercises in line formation did not look like an international incident.
A banner reading ''Truth, Benevolence, Forbearance,'' fluttered in the wind. Police waved cars around the line. Pedestrians stared, but only briefly.
It was not immediately clear to Copley Square shoppers that over recent weeks the Chinese government has stepped up its campaign to destroy Falun Gong, which it condemns as a dangerous and illegal cult. Thousands of practitioners have been arrested and detained in China, and on Dec. 26 four leaders received prison sentences of up 18 years.
And in US cities, where word of Falun Gong is spreading through the Chinese diaspora in home meetings and classified ads, officials are realizing that Falun Gong is not your average fitness regimen.
At the end of November, responding to scathing criticism from the Chinese ambassador, Seattle Mayor Paul Schell hastily rescinded his proclamation that the week of Nov. 29 would be known as Falun Dafa and Li Hongzhi days, after the group's leader. In August, Maryland Governor Parris N. Glendening asked China to accept his ''humblest and most sincere apology'' for declaring Li Hongzhi an honorary US citizen. Baltimore's mayor, Kurt Schmoke, and San Francisco's mayor, Willie L. Brown Jr., made similar retractions.
The mayors' decisions were an insult to Chen Zhao, a San Francisco marketing manager. He attended the Falun Gong Experience Sharing Conference over the weekend at the Westin Hotel in Copley Square shortly after a 13-day detention in a Chinese prison.
''I think that is really a shame for a government official to make such a statement out of trade interests,'' said Chen, a Chinese citizen residing in the United States on a green card who was arrested Dec. 15 during a Falun Gong meeting in Shenzhen. ''We were not treated as human beings at all. We were treated like dogs.''
Chen and four other recent detainees who reside in the United States told of being arrested in apartments without warrants or charges. Designated ''Falun Gong No. 20,'' Chen was held in a cell measuring about 5 feet by 5 feet, dressed in stained and unwashed prison clothes, and made to work more than 12 hours a day in a hairbrush factory, she said.
Governor Paul Cellucci has declined Falun Gong requests for official welcome, said John Jaw, who has been practicing Falun Gong for three years. Organizers said requests to Mayor Thomas M. Menino's office for a special proclamation were received too late.
But politics and religion were purposely at a distance at the Westin's Essex room yesterday, where several hundred followers of Li Hongzhi shared box lunches and sat cross-legged on the carpet, comparing notes on the spread of ''Master Li's'' ideas. Afterward, many in the group went outside to do their exercises in Copley Square.
In 1992, Li began spreading the idea of an orb, the falun, that spins constantly in the lower abdomen and can be cultivated through a series of five meditation exercises.
Li's writings promise that, gradually, the practitioner's cells will be ''filled with high-energy matter,'' slowing and eventually reversing the aging process. He said that among 100 million people who practice Falun Gong, many of the elderly have seen their wrinkles disappear and their hair turn black again.
Chinese government officials have accused Li of causing 1,400 deaths by discouraging his followers from seeking medical attention. Adherents at the Boston conference said there was no such discouragement, but that their health had begun to improve almost immediately as they learned the exercises.
Cambridge investment analyst Tianlun Jian, 44, discovered Falun Gong four years ago in a two-bedroom apartment in Queens. Skeptical, he was stunned to find 60 pairs of shoes sitting outside the apartment. There was so little room that seven or eight people were standing on the bed learning the exercises.
''A lady came in after me and she was blowing her nose,'' he said. ''Ten minutes later, she said, `It's really magic. My nose is not running anymore.' She said it was an allergy and she had been suffering for five years.''
Among about 200 practitioners gathered yesterday, perhaps 10 percent were not Chinese, and they had mostly arrived by way of various Eastern religions.
Deborah Massey, who drove 24 hours straight from Columbia, Mo., for the conference, discovered Falun Gong after experimenting with - in reverse order - reiki, Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism, East Indian religions, Catholicism, Judaism, the Baptist Church, and the Methodist Church.
''I did a lot of church-hopping,'' she said.
But her journey, she said, ended three months ago, when she attended one of the nine-day seminars that are Falun Gong's main evangelical effort.
''In metaphysical circles, you hear about books falling off shelves into people's hands,'' Massey said. ''It was like that.''

BEIJING (AP) - Chinese courts have sentenced to prison two dissidents who took part in an outlawed democratic party and a doctor who demonstrated against the banning of the Falun Gong spiritual movement, a rights group said Monday.
Tong Shidong, 65, an assistant physics professor at Hunan University, and Liao Shihua, a factory worker and labor organizer in the Hunan provincial capital, Changsha, were put on trial for subversion on Nov. 30, said the Hong Kong-based Information Center of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China.
Barred from attending the trial at Changsha's Intermediate People's Court, family members on Monday received their first notice of the verdict: guilty as charged, with Tong sentenced to 10 years in prison and Liao to six years, the Information Center said.
Tong and Liao bring to at least 20 the number of China Democracy Party members imprisoned in the communist government's 13-month crackdown to preserve its political monopoly.
Tong organized a China Democracy Party branch at Hunan University while Liao, in addition to joining the party, was a known labor-rights campaigner who often led protests outside government offices, the Information Center said. The court also convicted Liao of disrupting traffic for six hours in a June protest.
In a separate case in central China's Henan Province, the Xinxiang District Court on Thursday convicted Li Fujun, an assistant professor at the local medical school, of using a cult to undermine the law. He was sentenced to four years in prison.
Li was accused of taking part in a protest at Tiananmen Square and posting an article on an overseas Falun Gong Web site that argued the group's practices were helpful for medical treatment, the Information Center said.
More than 150 Falun Gong organizers have been sentenced in the past month, many by police using their powers to send people to labor camps for up to three years without trial, the Information Center said.
In addition, more than 100 Falun Gong members have been detained at Tiananmen Square in Beijing since the early morning hours of New Year's Day, the group reported.
Chinese officials had no comment on the group's reports. China has defended its crackdowns against the China Democracy Party and Falun Gong as conforming to Chinese laws. Human rights groups, however, have accused China of using its laws as a tool of state repression.

BEIJING, Jan 3 (Reuters) - China has jailed a leader of the outlawed Falun Gong spiritual movement for four years, while more than 100 of the group's adherents have been detained since the New Year, a Hong Kong-based rights watchdog said on Monday.
Li Fujun, 37, an assistant professor at Xinxiang Medical College in central Henan province, became the ninth Falun Gong leader to be jailed since the movement was banned last July, the Information Centre of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China said in a statement.
The statement said Li was convicted last Thursday of organising a Tiananmen Square protest and defending the group's claim that people can cure themselves without the aid of doctors or medicine.
The centre said that more than 100 Falun Gong believers detained by police since January 1 had been rounded up for protesting in Beijing's vast Tiananmen Square, the political heart of China and the focus of student-led demonstrations for democracy crushed by the army in 1989.
About 10 had tried to unfurl a protest banner at dusk on Sunday, it added.
Falun Gong practitioners have attempted to stage demonstrations in Tiananmen Square many times, especially since the movement was declared ``an evil cult'' in October.
Most have been whisked away by waiting police and freed after lectures on the ``evil'' of Falun Gong, which mixes Buddhism, Taoism and breathing exercises designed to harness energy in the body and heal.

ARTICLE HAD BAD EFFECT

The centre said Li Fujun had been arrested in October, and that the court stated his posting an article on the Internet on how Falun Gong could cure illness had an impact that ``was very bad.''
The centre quoted the court as saying Li had ``defended the heresy'' of the movement's founder and leader, Li Hongzhi, who lives in self-imposed exile in the United States. The two are not related.
China banned the movement after its members demanded recognition of their faith in a series of bold protests, one of which saw 10,000 followers surround the central leadership compound in Beijing in April.
The government said some 1,400 people had died due to Li Hongzhi's belief that under Falun Gang people had no need of doctors.
The rights group alleged that to avoid international condemnation for religious persecution China had sent as many as 5,000 Falun Gong adherents to labour camps -- a punishment that requires no court trial.
Four main leaders were jailed last month for up to 18 years after being found guilty of stealing state secrets and manslaughter.
Four other leaders received up to 12 years in prison in the southern island province of Hainan in November.
Li Hongzhi, who preaches salvation from a world corrupted by science, technology and decadence, has defended his movement as apolitical and posing no threat to Communist rule.