Friday, March 8, 2002; Page A20 BEIJING, March 8 (Friday) -- The banned Falun Gong spiritual movement staged a takeover of state television in the Chinese city where its founder was born, interrupting shows on several channels and transmitting a film protesting the government crackdown on the group, state-run media reported today.
Falun Gong members cut into the cable network in the northeastern industrial city of Changchun at two locations on Tuesday evening and used portable video equipment to broadcast their message into homes across the city in brief intervals twice during the evening, according to the Changchun Daily newspaper. The stunt was an extraordinary breach of the Communist Party's control of television and one of the most daring protests by Falun Gong since the government condemned it as an "[slanderous term used by Chinese government]" in 1999 and launched an intense, often violent campaign to wipe it out.
The protest appeared timed to embarrass China's leaders, who were gathered in Beijing for the opening of the parliament's annual meeting. The proceedings were marred Thursday when seven foreign Falun Gong members unfurled a banner nearby, on the northern edge of Tiananmen Square. Police quickly arrested the protesters.
Gail Rachlin, a Falun Gong spokeswoman in the United States, said the demonstration was not connected to the television protest in Changchun. She said the [group's] adherents in Changchun appeared to have acted on their own, and word of their success reached followers overseas days later.
"We have no idea how they did it," she said. "It's like a miracle."
She said television programmes on all eight of the city's cable channels were interrupted with footage of Falun Gong's U.S.-based leader, Li Hongzhi, and a video accusing the Chinese government of staging the self-immolation of purported Falun Gong members in Tiananmen last year.
A 12-year-old girl and her mother died in the incident, and the government launched a fierce media campaign afterward that turned public opinion in China against the [group].
Falun Gong denies that the people who set themselves on fire were true adherents. It has distributed videos in cities across China highlighting inconsistencies in government propaganda.
The Falun Gong film appeared on television in Changchun shortly before 7:30 p.m. for a few minutes, and then for about 15 minutes after 8 p.m., the state newspaper said. It is unclear how many people saw the video, but residents say a majority of the city's 1.3 million residents have access to cable television.
Other residents told reporters the broadcast lasted as long as 50 minutes.
"There was a brief blackout, and then there was Li Hongzhi speaking, banners saying, 'Falun Dafa is good,' and there was a news analysis about the Tiananmen Square self-immolation incident which indicated that it was planted by the government," a viewer in Changchun told the Reuters news agency. Falun Dafa is another name for the [group].
Local authorities responded quickly, inspecting cable lines and signal amplifiers throughout the city, the Changchun newspaper reported. Workers discovered two breaks in the network and seized video equipment at both locations, according to the report. At one of the locations, the newspaper said, police spotted two Falun Gong members tampering with the cable but managed to capture only one of them.
City and provincial officials called an emergency meeting and launched a renewed crackdown on Falun Gong. "Punish the vermin according to the law, and by no means go soft," the newspaper urged.
A former police official from the region said Changchun remains a hotbed of Falun Gong resistance nearly three years into the government's crackdown. The group's posters go up faster than officers can tear them down, and its leaflets are widely distributed. The city is Li Hongzhi's home town, and many senior officials, including police officials, practiced Falun Gong before it was banned.
The Communist Party has tried to suppress Falun Gong because it views the [group] as a threat to its monopoly on power. Falun Gong says more than 1,600 followers have died as a result of police abuse and torture. […]
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