Falun Gong stages 10th anniversary protest

Hundreds of yellow-shirted practitioners congregated in a downtown Hong Kong park, where they carried out group qigong, or breathing exercises, in the pouring rain.

Protesters then marched with drums and banners to demand that Beijing's Communist leaders end the decade-long crackdown against practitioners, some of whom were remembered with floral wreaths.

About 800 practitioners held a similar protest rally in Taipei. The group is largely free to practice in self-ruled Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own territory.

Over the past 10 years, the group says adherents in mainland China have been subject to jailings, beatings and torture; as well as banned from practicing openly.

“They're the subject of very brutal actions. We want to speak out for them,” said Hong Kong-based spokeswoman Sharon Xu.

“The persecution has increased,” she told Reuters.

Practitioners travelling to Hong Kong had not run into any obstacles, unlike on previous occasions, organizers said. Hundreds of practitioners had flown in from Taiwan, Xu said.

Labelled by Beijing a disruptive “cult,” Falun Gong claims that it has peaceful aims even as its publications challenge Communist Party rule in mainland China.

In Beijing, extra plainclothes policemen and police vans were deployed along streets leading to Zhongnanhai, the leadership compound, where 10,000 silent Falun Gong demonstrators gathered in 1999.

Tourists were hand-searched on their way onto Tiananmen Square, which was packed with people enjoying a windy spring day.

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