Banned sect broadcasts to China

Followers say Falun Gong eases the path to spiritual enlightenment

The banned Falun Gong spiritual movement has begun daily radio broadcasts aimed at mainland China to counter Beijing's year-long crackdown on the sect.

The first broadcast delved into the history of the movement, the story of its founding by Li Hongzhi and its introduction to the public in 1992.

To broadcast information about the movement and clarify facts about the Falun Gong issue to people in the Chinese mainland

Falun Gong radio

A list of some of its alleged benefits followed, said to include cures for illness and help along the path to spiritual enlightenment.

It went on to detail the recent history of the organization within China, discussing the anti-cult law passed by the authorities last year and the incident when hundreds of members were detained following a sit-in outside the government's headquarters compound in Beijing.

Hong Kong reports followed, recounting the detention of members on the mainland.

'Explaining Facts'

Defiance: Sect members arrested in Beijing

Falun Gong says that its radio station, called World Falun Dafa Radio, aims "to broadcast information about the movement and clarify facts about the Falun Gong issue to people in the Chinese mainland".

Falun Dafa, which means the Great Law of the Dharma Wheel, is another name for the Falun Gong movement, which combines meditation with a doctrine rooted loosely in Buddhist and Daoist teachings.

Falun Dafa Radio's producers and editors operate from the United States.

A cult that harms the Chinese people and society

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao

Staff members there say the Chinese-language broadcasts are being directed at northern and central China and are aimed at letting ordinary people there know about what the movement calls the widespread persecution of its members.

Tuning in

Li Hongzhi, founder of Falun Gong

World Falun Dafa Radio's web site has for some time carried news reports and audio in Chinese.

The station intends to broadcast every day for an hour (1400-1500 GMT) - late evening Beijing time - on shortwave frequency 9915 kilohertz.

According to a report by the Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, citing what it described as "internal documents from the Chinese Communists," more than 50 million people in mainland China tune in to foreign radio stations for information they cannot hear from Chinese sources.

The authorities in China have periodically jammed transmissions of the BBC, Voice of America and the US-funded Radio Free Asia. China also continues to block web sites it regards as politically sensitive.

Internet Crackdown

According to recent official statistics, more than 10 million Chinese now use the Internet.

Crackdown: Police raid sect offices

Earlier this year, police in the southwestern city of Chengdu shut down a web site that reported news about the 1989 Tiananmen massacre, mistreatment of Falun Gong members and official corruption.

A message on the web site said: "Because the site posted a lot of internal news that upset the leaders, it was closed down by the Chengdu Public Security Bureau on March 31."

The site's web master, Huang Qi, was charged in June with subverting state power, and could face a maximum jail sentence of ten years, the Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Hong Kong said.

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.