De Standaard Online

March 8, 2002

Beijing (Reuters) – In Changchun, in the North East of China, members of the banned Falun Gong movement have hijacked a tv-station to show a programme that protests against the harsh actions of the government against their group. This was announced by local spokesmen on Thursday.

The broadcasts of the state television in Changchun were interrupted on Tuesday by a recording of Li Hongzhi, the leader of Falun Gong who lives in the United States. That was, according to local sources, followed by a programme that accuses the government of having fabricated a self-immolation incident of supposed Falun Gong practitioners on Tiananmen Square last year.

The reports about the protest on television came at a moment when China arrested seven foreign adherents of the movement on Tiananmen Square. They were arrested during a protest against the campaign that Beijing has launched against what it calls an “[slanderous term used by Chinese government]”. A viewer in Changchun said that the programme of the state television was resumed after fifty minutes.
The protest on television was the latest attempt of Falun Gong to counteract the state media’s campaign to defame the group. The campaign is focused around the self immolations, during which a 12 year old girl and her mother died. Falun Gong denies that it concerned real adherents. The government has staged the incident, the movement says.
It was one of the most daring protest actions of Falun Gong. The movement held protests regularly on Tiananmen Square. But the actions have faded away last year, while the government arrested leaders of the group and sent thousands of followers to “re-education camps”. Falun Gong says that many adherents died there.

Yet foreign followers held up their campaign, with a series of protests of which the youngest took place Thursday in front of the building where the parlement has its annual meeting. The police took the foreigners, among whom at least 3 Australians, away.