AFP: China Blasts Attempts to Nominate Falun Gong Leader for Nobel Prize (Excerpt)

BEIJING, Dec 12, 2000 -- (Agence France Presse) China Tuesday blasted attempts to nominate Li Hongzhi, head of the Falun Gong spiritual movement, for the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize, labeling him [...].

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Over 30 people have formally nominated Li for next year's prize, including parliamentarians from the United States and Britain as well as scholars from the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia, Taiwan and other countries, the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said.

Reasons for nominating Li included his teachings, which advocate high moral values, as well as the ways in which he has instructed his followers to peacefully protest the 17-month ban placed on his group in China.

The Chinese government has called the group the biggest threat to its one party communist rule since the 1989 Tiananmen democracy protests and has launched a draconian crackdown on the organization.

In China, New York-based Li's Buddhist and Taoist-based teachings were studied during group meditation and traditional breathing exercise sessions.

Since the ban leaders of the organization have been jailed for up to 18 years while tens of thousands of followers have been detained, jailed or sent to labor camps for refusing to give up their beliefs.

However despite the campaign Falun Gong practitioners make almost daily peaceful protests against the ban in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

((c) 2000 Agence France Presse)

http://www.insidechina.com/news.php3?id=229471