November 22, 2001

BEIJING -- (AP) -- China swiftly expelled six Americans and more than two dozen other Westerners who protested in the heart of Beijing against the government's repression of the Falun Gong spiritual movement.

By Wednesday evening -- little more than 24 hours after they chanted, sat cross-legged and unveiled a banner on Tiananmen Square -- all 35 protesters had been forced to leave the country [...]

The demonstrators called for an end to China's [persecution] on Falun Gong. Falun Gong says more than 300 practitioners have died from torture and abuse in custody since China's [party's name omitted] leaders outlawed the movement in July 1999. Thousands of followers have been imprisoned.

Chinese Falun Gong members are regularly detained and often beaten and kicked for demonstrating on Tiananmen Square, the nation's symbolic heart.

But the protest Tuesday was the first to involve only Western supporters of the movement.

Falun Gong said demonstrators included Australians, Canadians, French, Germans, Irish, Israelis, Swedes, Swiss, Britons and Americans.

The U.S. Embassy in Beijing said six Americans detained had all been expelled by Wednesday evening.

It did not give their names.

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