Six members of banned Taiwanese spiritual sect jailed

Six mainland members of a Buddhist-inspired Taiwanese spiritual group have been jailed for up to eight years by a court in northern China as the fight intensifies against banned religious groups.

The six, members of the Guanyin Famen movement, which claims half a million members in China, were sentenced at a court in the Yenta district of Xian, the capital of Shaanxi province, for printing books propagating the group's views and trying to recruit new members at local universities from 1997 to last year.

The harshest sentence was handed down to an adherent identified as Liu Shiyao, who was jailed for eight years, while the other terms ranged from three to six years' jail, according to the Hong Kong-based Human Rights Centre for Human Rights and Democracy.

China has banned the Guanyin Famen, calling it an 'evil cult' in the same way it announced bans on the Falun Gong spiritual sect and Zhong Gong movement.

Beijing leaders have slammed the Falun Gong as an 'anti-communist organisation'.

Guanyin Famen appeared in China in 1992, four years after its foundation by a Taiwanese woman who is now revered by followers as 'Supreme Master Ching Hai' and 'Enlightened Master from the Himalayas'.

The group claims to have 500,000 followers in more than 40 countries including Japan, the United States, Hong Kong and South Korea. It has a branch registered in Hong Kong.