An exhibit displaying the works of a painter who is a Falun Gong member had to be relocated after a theater closed the show at the request of the Chinese embassy, the organizer said.
Two embassy officials disrupted the March 31 opening of the exhibit of paintings by Chinese-born Zhang Cui Ying, telling visitors they were taking part in an illegal event. The theater then shut down the exhibit, said organizer Adrian Sturdza, who is also a Falun Gong member.
"Last month, some Chinese embassy official told me that they would not allow this exhibit to take place in Romania," Sturdza said Saturday. "I laughed at him, telling them that Romania is not China."
Sturdza said the organization is legal in Romania as a cultural association. He said the exhibit would reopen Tuesday in the lobby of Bucharest's Intercontinental Hotel.
Zhao Deyong, a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Bucharest, confirmed that the embassy had asked the theater to cancel the exhibit and that two diplomats had gone to observe it on opening day.
"The exhibit organizers were Falun Gong members ... they were spreading materials offensive to China and the diplomats had to stop it," he said by telephone.
The embassy faxed a statement to The Associated Press saying that "Falun Gong's spread in Romania would physically and morally harm the Romanian people."
Falun Gong has attracted millions of followers with a mix of traditional Chinese calisthenics and doctrines drawn from Buddhism, Taoism and the ideas of its founder, Li Hongzhi, a former government clerk. It was banned in China in 1999 as a threat to public safety and communist rule.
Since 1999, thousands of Falun Gong followers have been detained in China, and scores are reported to have died in police custody from beatings or mistreatment. Police deny mistreating anyone, though they say some have died from hunger strikes or from refusing medical help.