Thu May 9, 2002

SHANGHAI, China (AP) - Falun Gong [practitioners] have broken into the cable television system of another major Chinese city and broadcast a video criticizing the government crackdown on the group, police and witnesses said Thursday.

The broadcast broke into regular programming shortly after 9 p.m. in Harbin on April 21 and lasted several minutes before it was shut off, according to residents. The size of the audience was unknown, but Harbin, a provincial capital northeast of Beijing, has 3.5 million people.

It was at least the second time the group has broken into a cable television system. Police in the northeastern city of Changchun say they arrested seven people after they broadcast protest videos on March 5.

The government's control of information -- and its extreme sensitivity about Falun Gong -- makes it extremely difficult to find out about such activities.

The Chinese government banned Falun Gong in July 1999 [...]. The group, which attracted millions of members in the 1990s, says it only wants the freedom to meditate.

In Harbin, one resident said the broadcast showed lines of people doing Falun Gong's slow motion exercises.

A voice on the video said Falun Gong was good and the government should not have outlawed it, said the woman, who asked not to be named.

The woman, who works at a high school, said teachers and students were all discussing the video the next morning.

[...]

Falun Gong [practitioners] based in New York say [practitioners] have staged similar break-ins into cable TV systems in three other cities in the past three months. These claims have not been confirmed.

The broadcasts show the group is still capable of defying the crackdown despite thousands of arrests and detentions.

After the incident in March, as many as 2,000 people were believed to have been detained, according to the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy.

The group has repeatedly used technology to evade government controls. [Practitioners] communicate via the Internet, and remote-controlled loudspeakers have been used in crowded urban areas.

It was unclear how the group took over the Harbin cable network's signal. Harbin Cable Television Station refused to comment.

Another Harbin resident, who also asked not to be named, said police looking for Falun Gong [practitioners] have made frequent sweeps of her neighborhood since the broadcast.

But handwritten posters saying "Falun Gong is a healthy meditation" still appear on walls near residents' mailboxes, she said.

"Every time officials take one away, another poster will be put up in the next day or two," the woman said.

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