May 01, 1999	atimes.com

China Religious protest causes unease By Antoaneta Bezlova BEIJING, - The Chinese capital has not seen any major protest in recent years so authorities were surprised to find thousands of followers of a religious sect protesting last weekend. And the timing of the largest civic protest in Beijing in 10 years couldn't have irked the government more. Some 15,000 people from the Fa Lun Gong religious sect gathered at the door of the China's Communist leadership last Sunday, just weeks before the sensitive 10th anniversary of the bloody Tiananmen massacre, which killed hundreds pro-democracy activists. In a year full of politically sensitive anniversaries such as the 50th year of the founding of Communist China later this year, authorities believed they have done their best to keep a tight lid on outbursts of social discontent. Sporadic outbreaks of protest have rocked cities in China's recession-hit industrial belt, but the capital has remained largely stable. Few protests have occurred in front of Zhongnanhai, the residence of the central Communist Party leadership. One of them took place last year when people cheated in a financial scheme lined the streets, demanding the government compensation for the losses. The Fa Lun Gong's disciplined and organized protest was the first one since the June 1989 Tiananmen massacre, and last Sunday's protesters demanded not money or jobs but something more threatening to the Communist party - freedom and recognition of their beliefs. Most of the sect's followers refused to talk to foreign journalists, while those who spoke denied they had any political motives. All they wanted was recognition of their movement which has been branded by some mainland scholars as a ''dangerous cult." Long a subject of dispute as to its real aim, the Fa Lun Gong movement promises to cure ailments and ''reverse a tide of evil sweeping mankind to the brink of catastrophe.'' It incorporates healing techniques based on qi gong - the traditional Chinese teaching of cultivating human energy. The sect leaders claim their followers number around 100 million around the world, although government estimates put the number at 70 million. The rise of the Fa Lun Gong since early 1990s is part of the proliferation of all kinds of faiths and folk religions, which are filling the spiritual vacuum after the virtual collapse of communism. ''We used to fight for communism with Mao Zedong's red book in hand, enthusiastic to tears,'' says Liang Chunsheng, an elderly woman who sympathizes with the Fa Lun Gong followers. ''But the Cultural Revolution crushed everything. People have to look for some spiritual support elsewhere than the Communist Party." Most adherents to the Fa Lun Gong sect come from the bottom strata of the society - retired women, workers, officials and a big number of peasants. Most of those who were at the Sunday protest came from Beijing, Tianjin and Dalian, but others were clearly peasants from the northern countryside. And this is what frightens the government most. The protesters are not dissidents or free-thinking intellectuals but people who used to constitute the Communist Party's most loyal followers. The movement appears to be tapping into deep public resentment, and fear of the unknown, as China undergoes wrenching social change and upheaval in its march to capitalism. The Party leadership is also mindful of the strong role secret religious societies played in the downfall of the last imperial dynasty in 1911. Previous secret societies as the Taipings and the Boxers dealt a fatal blow to the Qing Dynasty in mid-1850s and 1900, and heralded the demise of the empire. Like the Boxers' rebels a century ago, Fa Lun Gong believers claim they have acquired superhuman powers through training their minds and bodies in line with ancient Chinese martial arts practices. The point that the Taipings and the Boxers were mostly peasants is not lost to the government, especially in the context of growing rural unrest throughout the country in recent years. Peasant protests have focused on arbitrary taxes and excessive fees, corruption and officials' abuse of power and about widespread confiscation of public land by the local governments. Most of all they complain about the government's indifference to their complaints. (Inter Press Service)

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