October 31, 2000

By Todd Belie

Daily Bruin

U. California-Los Angeles

(U-WIRE) LOS ANGELES -- Violence erupted in China this month as members of the Falun Gong [group] continue to challenge the government for the right to meditate openly.

Already, two large protests against the government have resulted in more than 100 members arrested in October. The group, which the Chinese government declared [...], has been banned in China since July 1999.

With several members at UCLA coming from mainland China and Taiwan, the conflict has become personal.

"I believe the Chinese members are being treated unfairly" said Hsin-Ling Hsieh, a third-year doctoral student in economics. "They don't have any right of speech or to express how they feel."

Falun Gong was founded in 1992 by Li Hongzhi as a meditation-exercise group to promote "truthfulness, benevolence and forbearance."

Though a non-religious organization, members say Falun Gong has brought spirituality to their lives.

"I think I found real truth in my heart, and I'm shocked by it," Hsieh said. "I've been seeking the truth of my life for a long time; I felt lost before and this is the first time I've found that truth."

According to Yingnian Wu, assistant professor of statistics and a Falun Gong member, Chinese president Jiang Zemin has ordered the group be suppressed because of its enormous size and influence over the Chinese population.

Other members said the government is worried about any group becoming larger than the Communist Party.

But Chinese officials say the group is not properly registered and therefore cannot conduct the same public activities as groups that are officially registered with the government.

According to Randall Peerenboom, an acting professor of law, the situation may not necessarily be a violation of human rights, but a difference in the way the U.S. and Chinese governments deal with social groups and forms of public expression.

"The United States may not like the Chinese law, but that is the law," Peerenboom said. "Under Chinese law, the government had the legal right to crack down and prohibit the Falun Gong."

But methods the Chinese government uses to enforce these laws have included torture and denying adequate legal representation, as reported by Falun Gong members.

"The crackdown is irrational and unconstitutional, and is a severe violation of the basic human rights of the Chinese practitioners," Wu said.

Falun Gong practitioners estimate at least 67 of its 100 million members worldwide have been killed while in the custody of the Chinese government.

Although the group at UCLA is relatively small, members are still attempting to voice their concern over the situation in China.

"We are trying to raise the public's awareness of the on-going atrocity, hoping that more American people, including UCLA students, could support the human rights of Chinese Falun Gong practitioners," Wu said.

The Falun Gong group may be relatively new, Peerenboom said, but conflict between the Chinese government and social groups aren't.

"At this point the movement doesn't seem to have any overt political aspirations or political ideology. but the communist party is worried that it may develop that way at some point in the future," Peerenboom said.

With reports from Daily Bruin wire services.(C) 2000 Daily Bruin via U-WIREhttp://news.excite.com/news/uw/001031/health-149