February 12, 2002
BEIJING (Reuters) - China expelled a Canadian and an American follower of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement Tuesday, one day after they launched a Lunar New Year protest in the heart of capital Beijing.
"They have already exited the country,'' a Chinese Foreign Ministry official told Reuters, declining to give details of how or when they left China.
The pair were expelled as Chinese leaders prepare for the Feb. 21-22 visit of President Bush, whose administration has criticized China over its suppression of religious freedom.
Police detained Canadian Jason Loftus and American Levi Browde in Tiananmen Square Monday after they unfurled a yellow banner saying self-immolations a year ago by alleged followers of the group had been staged by the Chinese authorities.
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A spokesman for the U.S. embassy confirmed Browde's expulsion but had no further details.
Witnesses said Loftus, 22, struggled and shouted "Falun Gong is good!'' as he was wrestled into a police van. Browde, 29, was led peacefully on board shortly afterward, witnesses added.
Their banner read: ''The self-immolations were a fraud. Falun Gong is good.''
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MEDIA CAMPAIGN
Graphic footage of the self-immolations and the perpetrators' horrific burns have been at the core of a government media campaign against Falun Gong, which it outlawed in 1999 and has branded an [Chinese government's slanderous term omitted].
Falun Gong has denied any involvement in the incident.
China expelled 35 foreign Falun Gong members for protests on Tiananmen square in November and another Canadian woman for a Falun Gong protest there last month.
It has jailed leaders for subversion and kept protests by the group, once common in Tiananmen Square, to a minimum in the past year.
Falun Gong says more than 1,600 followers have died as a result of abuse in police custody or detention centers while thousands more have been sent to "re-education through labor" camps.
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http://dailynews.yahoo.com/htx/nm/20020212/wl/rights_china_falungong_dc_1.html