July 12, 2001

The miles-long walk in the hot sun, along Delaware County streets choked by rush hour traffic, was worth the trouble for this small crew of outsiders. While they certainly aren't the first to walk miles for a cause, theirs is as bizarre as it is tragic: Stopping the murder and persecution of their countrymen in China for practicing a form of meditation as harmless as jogging. The exercise is called Falun Gong, practiced by an estimated 70 million people worldwide.

Yesterday, the group made up of Chinese immigrants and Americans walked from the Liberty Bell to Lansdowne, then down Chester Pike to Chester City.

They began in Boston, Mass., and plan to arrive in Washington, D.C., on July 18 - two days before the two-year anniversary of the Chinese government's ban on Falun Gong.

Terri Morse of Media, a spokeswoman for the group, said the Chinese government had promoted Falun Gong before 1999 as a means of achieving wellness. But activists say the government made it illegal because it found more people practice Falun Gong than there are members of the [party' name omitted] Party.

Before the ban, Chinese citizens gathered in parks to practice Falun Gong, which looks somewhat like Taichi.

Now they are arrested and often beaten, blacklisted and sent to labor camps, where some have died, said Hao Wang, 16, who came to the United States from China six years ago and now lives in Boston. He is the youngest member of the group.

A portfolio the group carries has pictures of people the activists say were tortured and murdered.

"She was only 19," said Wang, pointing to one photo. "They want absolute control," he says, attempting to explain the government.

Another photo is of a 30-year-old woman holding her 8-month-old son. The text next to the photo explains that both were sent to a labor re-education camp without a trial. The Chinese government told the woman's family that she and the baby jumped to their deaths there.

Still another photo shows a 44-year-old computer software engineer who was imprisoned and died when cellmates beat him at the behest of the police because he refused to renounce his belief in Falun Gong.

The activists say more than 10,000 Chinese have been sent to labor camps without a trial; some are given 18-year sentences. More than 250 people have died from beatings and other forms of torture, said Morse.

Mengyang Jian, a 16-year-old who came to the United States from China when she was 4, describes Falun Gong as a non-religious way to "upgrade oneself from body and mind" and attain "truth, benevolence and forbearance."

On Friday, the International Olympic Committee must decide if the 2008 Summer Games will be held in Toronto, Paris or Beijing, with many officials, including U.S. congressmen, calling for the exclusion of China because of its human rights abuses. Olympic officials are favoring Beijing as their choice, according to international news reports.

The small band of activists, numbering about 20, snaked their way through the county yesterday, their straw hats and signs marked with Chinese characters clashing with the backdrop. At times during the trip, locals have joined the group, swelling it to 100 people, said Wang.

Among them yesterday were Lijie Sun, Cuilan Ma and Jim and Cindy Wong of Drexel Hill.