BEIJING -- Members of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement
hijacked a television signal and broadcast protest videos to areas on the
outskirts of Beijing last month, police and television station employees said
Thursday.
Falun Gong videos were briefly shown on the nights on Aug. 23 and 27 in
Baoding, a city southwest of the Chinese capital, said a woman who answered the
phone at a television station there. She wouldn't give her name or any details
of the broadcasts.
The programming was seen within at least a 60-mile radius, including the
Fangshan district of Beijing, said a television station official in the nearby
town of Xushui. He refused to give his name, saying employees had been ordered
not to reveal the incident.
There was no immediate explanation of how Falun Gong activists took over the
television signal.
Falun Gong supporters have broken into cable television systems in at least
four cities this year to show videos protesting the government's 3-year-old
crackdown on the group. In June, a state-run satellite television signal was
hijacked and briefly displayed messages of support for the group.
The communist government say the broadcasts are proof of what it says is Falun
Gong's disruptive, anti-social nature. Yet they also show that determined
members are defying the crackdown.
A statement issued by activists abroad said the August broadcasts showed videos
documenting support for the group outside China and condemning the crackdown
and alleged police abuses. The group says Chinese authorities have killed
hundreds of members in detention.
A police officer reached by telephone in Fangshan said several Falun Gong
followers suspected of arranging the broadcast have been arrested. He wouldn't
give his name or other details.
A man who answered the phone at a state company in Xushui said he saw a few
seconds of images showing people standing in front of Falun Gong founder Li
Hongzhi doing the group's slow-motion calisthenics. Traditional Chinese music
played in the background.
"Then the screen suddenly turned black and white," said the man, who
wouldn't give his name.
China's communist leaders banned Falun Gong in 1999, alarmed by its membership
that numbered in the millions and its organizational ability.
The government calls the group an "evil cult" and accuses it of
leading followers to their death by suicide or refusing modern medicine. The
government has put enormous effort into demonizing the group, especially
abroad, where it boasts a large membership and some public support.
Falun Gong promotes a mixture of eastern mysticism, meditation and traditional
Chinese exercises, which is says promote health and clean living.