Latest News From China - 02/16/2000

[China, February 15, 2000] During the Spring Festival holidays, a journalist had a chance to chat with a group of high-ranking public security officials. When they discussed the Falun Gong issue, they were disgusted by the way the central government treated Falun Gong. They all believed that the government has violated the Chinese Constitution and law by doing the following,

- Putting members of Falun Dafa Research Society on show-trial;

- Demanding that anyone who wants to go up to the rostrum of Tiananmen for a visit must curse Falun Gong and its founder;

- Hiring vagrants to catch practitioners on the Tiananmen Square by taking advantage of practitioners' honesty and kindness and then giving the vagrants the bonus according to the number of practitioners they catch.

[Beijing, February 16, 2000] A prosecutor in Beijing said that there were over 7,000 practitioners sent to the Changping Detention Center in Beijing on the lunar New Year's Eve.

Currently, the police are still arresting practitioners at home in order to find out the organizers of the New Year's Eve protest on Tiananmen Square.

[Xinjiang, February 16, 2000] At 8am of Feb. 15, eight practitioners were arrested from the Liyushan Park of Urumuqi city when they were practicing Falun Gong exercises together. So far their whereabouts are still unknown.

[China, February 16, 2000] According to Chinese government's statistics, since the official ban of Falun Gong last year, the majority of practitioners in China have continued to practice Falun Gong. Practitioners have never stopped appealing for Falun Gong.

[China, February 16, 2000] According to source in government, the Central government decided to intensify its crackdown efforts against Falun Gong starting from the Mid of February in order to prevent practitioners from appealing in March.

It was said that the Chinese police will keep practitioners from going to Beijing to appeal by detaining them, placing them under house arrest, taking away their ID cards or imposing heavy deposits.