Frankfurter Allgemeine: German Members of Falun Gong Arrested

Nov. 20, 2001

F.A.Z. BEIJING. Ten Germans were among the 35 Western followers of the forbidden Falun Gong movement who were arrested and ordered to leave China on Tuesday following a demonstration on Tiananmen Square. Group members gathered in the center of the Chinese capital with banners bearing the Falun Gong motto -- "Truth, Benevolence and Forbearance" -- to protest China's alleged persecution of their movement. China's state-run radio station said the protesters were issued warnings for disrupting public order.

Falun Gong was banned in China in 1999 after 10,000 members demonstrated on Tiananmen Square against defamation of the movement. The Chinese government views the movement as a [Jiang Zemin government's slanderous term omitted] that has a damaging influence on society.

The movement, which says its philosophies and slow-motion exercises promote health and good citizenship, attracted millions of Chinese followers in the 1990s.

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