Nearly 1,000 members of Utah's Chinese community were celebrating the coming Year of the Horse when a fire alarm blared through the University of Utah's Union Building.
The revelers, including members of the Chinese Olympic delegation, evacuated the building only to be met by members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement passing out flyers.
The Chinese government has repressed Falun Gong practitioners, considering them dangerous dissidents. Utah members of the movement have been increasingly active in recent months, and many have been passing out literature on city streets as the 2002 Olympic Games grow near.
Lily Reed, program coordinator of the U.'s international academic programs, who organized the party last Friday at the Union Building, stopped short of blaming the Falun Gong for the false alarm, which disrupted the festivities for about 40 minutes.
"This is the United States, we have freedom of religion, but I want to know whoever did this," Reed said. "What happened that night would disgust people."
For the Chinese, the Feb. 12 New Year is their most important holiday.
"After two months of planning, coordination and hard work, this made me angry," Weber State professor Tao Wen Le said. "We do not get together like this all the time."
Fred Esplin, the U.'s director of public relations, said the school is not taking a position on the political quarrel.
"We are a place for all kinds of activities and that's in the best tradition of freedom and thoughts," he said.