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Clara Li

The Falun Gong member who organised the January 23 group suicide attempt in Tiananmen Square remains loyal to the banned sect, the official media reported yesterday.

Wang Jindong 'insists that he is not worried about his horrific burns because he is a Falun Gong disciple', said China Daily.

Five of the protesters succeeded in setting themselves alight, including Liu Chunling, 36, who died. The plight of her 12-year-old daughter, Liu Siying, has attracted widespread media commentary on the mainland against Falun Gong.

The four injured remain at Jishuitan Hospital in Beijing, the newspaper said. The three women are still in a critical condition.

'Although the medical treatment may save their lives, the Falun Gong addicts, who are still obsessed with the cult and have illusions about their ringleader Li Hongzhi, will suffer permanent psychological damage,' the hospital president was quoted as saying.

Liu Siying - the youngest victim - regretted her action and said she was cheated by her mother, according to an earlier report by Xinhua.

Meanwhile, Chinese armed forces and armed police joined the intensified national crackdown against the sect by announcing they were ready to crush Falun Gong, Xinhua said yesterday - the first time the Chinese armed forces have used such strong language against the sect. The repeated demonstrations in Tiananmen Square had, so far, been handled by the police.

'We are ready to crush any form of provocation in order to maintain the sovereignty of the country and social stability,' Xinhua reported, quoting 'officers and soldiers' from all sections of the People's Liberation Army. The official agency called Falun Gong an instrument 'of hostile Western forces' and vowed to continue the fight until the end.

'The army is a powerful pillar of the democratic dictatorship of the people,' said the military, while denouncing 'the hostile Western forces which use Li Hongzhi to sow chaos in China and to undermine the Chinese Government.'

Guangdong has announced plans to set up anti-cult offices throughout the province, the China News Service reported. It quoted analysts as saying the move indicated that the campaign would be a long one.

Beijing claimed that 1,600 people had died because of their false beliefs in Falun Gong. Many official state media carried lengthy accounts of members who became disillusioned before killing themselves or family members in an attempt to get to heaven.

Beijing banned Falun Gong in July 1999 and last week branded it 'anti-human, anti-society and anti-science'.



Horrific burns do not worry Falun Gong disciple, say media