BEIJING, Feb 15, 2001 -- (Agence France Presse) China said Thursday that nominations for Falun Gong leader Li Hongzhi for this year's Nobel Peace Prize had made a mockery of the award.
"We are strongly opposed to the use of the Nobel Peace Prize to achieve ulterior political motives," foreign ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao said.
Over 30 people have formally nominated Li for next year's prize, including parliamentarians from the United States and Britain. Scholars from the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia, Taiwan and other countries have also put his name forward, the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said.
China, which has banned the sect, has said giving the prize to Li would amount to encouraging a criminal.
Beijing has accused Li of causing the deaths of more than 1,600 Falun Gong followers, whom it says were duped by Li into believing they did not need medicine and could cure their illnesses by following his teachings.
It has also blamed Li for the apparent suicide attempts by five people whom China said are Falun Gong members on Tiananmen Square on Chinese New Year's eve on January 23. One woman died and four others, including a 12-year-old girl, suffered severe burns when they set themselves on fire.
China said the five were trying to reach nirvana, but human rights groups said they were more likely protesting against the government's ban against the group, imposed in July 1999.
Falun Gong's headquarters in New York have denied the five were Falun Gong members.
Zhu on Thursday said Li has "fabricated fallacies and exercised spiritual control over his followers."
"The Falun Gong cult, in disregard of the laws and regulations, collected a large amount of money illegally and also held illegal assembly, seriously violating public security," Zhu said.
"It also harmed the lives and health of other people, resulting in many family tragedies."
Nominations for Li have cited his teachings which advocate high moral values, as well as the ways in which he has instructed his followers to peacefully protest the ban imposed by Beijing.
The Chinese government has called the group the biggest threat to its one party communist rule since the 1989 Tiananmen democracy protests and has jailed hundreds of Falun Gong leaders for up to 18 years while sending tens of thousands to labor camps for refusing to give up their beliefs. ((c) 2001 Agence France Presse)