BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese police hauled off a lone foreign supporter of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement on Monday after he held up a small protest banner in Beijing's Tiananmen Square on Monday, witnesses said.
The brief demonstration came on the 10th anniversary of the first time Falun Gong's now-exiled founder, Li Hongzhi, began to spread his teachings, its U.S.-based information centre said.
The French-speaking man in his 30s unfurled the poster after milling around the square for more than two hours carrying a tourist map and two paper Chinese flags, witnesses said.
Police converged on him within seconds and shoved him into a nearby van. Few noticed the demonstration.
In the past six months, China has expelled some 100 Western Falun Gong supporters within days of nabbing them during protest attempts at the sensitive square.
Li began giving lectures in 1992 to spread the teachings of Falun Gong, which he said he received from mountain hermits. The movement fuses meditation exercises and mystical elements drawn from Taoism and Buddhism.
Falun Gong claimed more than 100 million mainland Chinese followers at the height of its popularity in 1998. Beijing outlawed it as an "evil cult" in 1999, months after an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 adherents gathered in front of the leadership compound in Beijing in a quiet protest.
The demonstration on Monday was the latest in an ongoing series of protests by foreigners in Tiananmen Square and by local adherents hacking into television networks in northeastern China.
Falun Gong says more than 1,600 followers have died as a result of abuse in police custody or detention centres since the movement was banned.
The Chinese government says only a handful have died and those were from suicide or natural causes. It blames the Falun Gong for the deaths of at least 1,900 people through suicide or refusing medical treatment.