Beijing lays the blame on media messengers
In the long shadow of the Cultural Revolution, the Chinese Government's propaganda campaign against the Falun Gong spiritual movement is beginning to wilt.
A population stunned by the footage of Falun Gong disciples, including a 12-year-old girl, consumed in a blaze of self-immolation in Tiananmen Square, is now wearying of a relentless media blitz. It is as if the Chinese Government, delivered this most damning evidence of cultish behavior, has been unable to contain itself.
The intensity and language of Beijing's official condemnation has been such that many ordinary Chinese are beginning to switch off. This is hardly surprising given language reminiscent of a past era.
The state-controlled media - which most Chinese have learnt to regard with at least a degree of scepticism - has been relentless. On top of this there have been lectures in workplaces and even on public transport denouncing the evils of Falun Gong.
The People's Daily, mouthpiece of the Communist Party, has run torrents of copy attacking Falun Gong in the 12 days since the official news blackout on the event was lifted. This week it gave vent to the thoughts of academics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, who proclaimed that the sect's leader, Li Hongzhi, and his cohorts were "acting as running dogs of international anti-China forces".
"Falun Gong has completely torn off its sham mask of so-called truthfulness, compassion and forbearance and revealed its true features of lies, evil and frenzy," the paper continued, adding: "The tiger is fierce, but does not devour its cubs, but the Falun Gong organisation has gone so far as to hoodwink, incite and even force its disciples and immature youngsters to embark on the road to ruin."
It is the sort of diatribe more likely to be associated these days with China's neighbor, North Korea, than with a China trying to embrace an international audience to garner support for its entry into the World Trade Organisation or the hosting of the 2008 Olympics.
Falun Gong itself has flatly denied those involved in the January 23 protest were followers of the movement. But it is clearly concerned at the fallout from the campaign. "Is this turning into a modern-day witch-hunt? Are Chinese citizens to relive the horrors of the Cultural Revolution?" it asked in a statement posted on its website this week.
Falun Gong has in official terms undergone a metamorphosis in China. Originally supported along with other qi gong movements in the early 1990s, its eclectic beliefs combine qi gong breathing exercises, elements of Taoism, Buddhism and the teachings of "Master" Li Hongzhi.
The sect found appeal in the disillusion that many older Chinese feel about the communist system, which has failed to provide in retirement to a generation who bore the burdens of the command economy in the 1950s, '60s and '70s. It flourished along with religions of all kinds in recent years.
A demonstration on April 25, 1999, by 10,000 Falun Gong followers claiming greater freedom to pursue their beliefs deeply shook the government, which has struggled to suppress the organisation since it banned it in July that year.
Convincing the masses - many of whom know someone involved in Falun Gong or have themselves tested the qi gong waters - that the sect is evil, has been difficult. After the burnings, to further illustrate and strengthen its case, the government has fallen back on trotting out other examples of the evil within. The official Xinhua news agency reported the case on Tuesday, for example, of a 36-year-old nurse and Falun Gong practitioner arrested on suspicion of selling psychotropic drugs.
Former Falun Gong members, including some who have spent time, without trial, in re-education-through-labor camps, have been enlisted to recant their beliefs. Organisations as diverse as state-sanctioned religious groups, regional governments and professional bodies have been enlisted to denounce the sect.
But one of the most disturbing twists to the campaign has been the heavy-handed pressure exerted on the government of the former British colony of Hong Kong to tow the Beijing line.
Falun Gong is a registered, legal organisation in Hong Kong, where adherents are free to pursue the exercises at the heart of their beliefs in public.
A week ago, Beijing let it be known that it "would not tolerate" Hong Kong becoming a beachhead for Falun Gong activity on the mainland.
The cancellation of an imminent visit to Beijing by the Dutch Foreign Minister, Jozias Van Aartsen, came amid thinly veiled Dutch anger at pressure for a Dutch delegation in Hong Kong to abort a meeting with Falun Gong representatives.
Whatever international ramifications Beijing's campaign may have, there are signs the Hong Kong administration has already buckled. Chief executive Tung Chee-hwa said on Thursday that his administration would "closely monitor Falun Gong activities in Hong Kong and will not allow anyone to make use of Hong Kong's freedoms and tolerance to affect Hong Kong's order and stability, nor the mainland's order and stability".