China seeks to exorcise ‘evil cult’ it invited in

FT ^ | 6/9/09 | Jamil Anderlini

[pissant]

Zhang Erping first heard about Falun Gong in 1994 at an introductory talk organised by the Chinese consulate in New York.

At the time, the Chinese Communist party was promoting the nascent spiritual movement abroad, along­side traditional cooking and handicrafts, as part of its “cultural propaganda to the west”.

“I still have pictures of me with the Falun Gong masters and government officials in the consulate in New York,” says Mr Zhang, who calls himself a volunteer but is widely regarded as the official spokesman and the second most prominent figure within the movement.

On Wednesday, 10 years after Beijing reversed its course and labelled the group an “evil cult”, Falun Gong rivals the Dalai Lama as the party’s number one enemy.

Falun Gong practitioners in the US estimate at least 100,000 adherents have been locked up in prison, psychiatric hospitals or “re-education through labour” camps in China’s notorious gulag system since a vicious campaign to stamp it out began in July 1999. They say about 3,200 followers have been tortured to death while in custody, including more than 100 last year.

[pissant]

Finally, they are going to get rid of the stinking commie maoists!! Oh wait, nevermind.

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*snrk* Wait ‘til they get Scientology...