October 30, 1999	atimes.com

China 'Heretic cults' ban fails to quash Falun Gong By Antoaneta Bezlova BEIJING - First, Chinese authorities banned the spiritual movement in July, calling it a ''pernicious cult''. Then they launched a month-long propaganda assault against Falun Gong's founder, Li Hongzhi, and charged the movement's jailed leaders with the capital crime of stealing state secrets. Now, they are considering new legislation that bans all ''heretic cults''. In spite of this relentless campaign, the communist leaders of China have failed to suppress the followers of outlawed Falun Gong. Since early this week, defiant adherents of the movement have been staging a sit-in outside the Great Hall of the People in Beijing where the National People's Congress, China's parliament, was convened to discuss the new anti-Falun Gong law. These silent protests did not last long before they were taken away by the police. Dozens are believed to have been rounded up this week. But the willingness of hundreds of people to face arrest and possible legal charges highlights a growing quandary for the Chinese government - how to deal with the resurgence of popular religion which comes to replace the increasingly feeble ideology of the communist regime. Protesters are demanding legal recognition for the spiritual movement that combines traditional Chinese 'qigong', or breathing and exercise techniques, with beliefs taken from Buddhism and Taoism. It has attracted mainly pensioners, housewives and unemployed workers who can be seen early every morning in the public parks, dutifully practising their breathing exercises. Falun Gong claims tens of millions of members in China alone. The authorities were alarmed as much by the large number of people that subscribed to the movement, said to exceed membership in the Communist Party, as by the fact that among them were many current and former officials. Earlier this summer, the Beijing Daily blamed the credulity of some party leaders for the sect's popularity. It said the ''qigong craze'' started back in the 1950s when many aged party cadres attempted to regain their youth and strength through practising qigong. ''The government has been too lenient on Falun Gong for a long time', claims Sima Nan, a former journalist-turned-debunker of Falun Gong, touring the country in a bid to expose Li Hongzhi as a fake master. ''Now we have reached the point that President Jiang Zemin doesn't have any rivals but Li Hongzhi.'' Although leaders of the Falun Gong have repeatedly stated they do not have political motives and are only loosely organized, the government outlawed the movement in July, saying it represented a threat for the country's social stability. ''It is an anti-science, anti-society and anti-government cult,'' said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue this week. On Thursday, some 30 Falun Gong followers said members had been arrested, beaten and tortured by police authorities. The new law, if adopted by the legislature, would effectively curb all ''heretic cults'', like the Falun Gong. Analysts say China's leaders are seriously worried by the recent explosion of popular religions. Millenarian rumors and movements have been flourishing in the countryside, with many doomsday cults predicting the world's end. In some underground Christian churches, believers are reading Nostradamus and waiting for the apocalypse. Xinhua News Agency called on all judiciary officials, police and prosecutors to be vigilant about ''those who organize and use heretic cults to instigate unrest, deceive and murder people, rape women and swindle people out of their money.'' The first victim of the anti-cult crackdown was a religious cult leader in Xiangtan, Hunan province, who was accused of raping 13 women and preaching the end of the world and who was executed this month. In another case, three public health officials in Dahua, Guangxi province, were sacked for inviting a Taoist monk to hold a witchcraft-style ceremony at the opening of a medical training centre. The ceremony included incantations against evil spirits, sacrificial offerings of a pig's head and chicken flesh, and the monk walking from room to room ringing bells and offering libations. While lashing out at Falun Gong and other ''illegal religions'', the Communist Party has tried to launch its own crusade for new spirituality. This year it inaugurated its first national ''hero of atheism'' award to fight the resurgence of religions, both old and new. One of its five winners, the 43-year-old Sima Nan, became known as the cultbuster for his relentless fight to root out the Falun Gong. He hosts a TV programme demystifying so-called superhuman skills of the masters by performing similar tricks himself, explaining they are all ''science and nothing else''. (Inter Press Service)

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