On Tuesday, one hundred members of the meditation group Falun Gong were detained at a Tiananmen Square protest which marks the first anniversary of a demonstration that eventually led the Chinese government to ban the movement. Groups of protesters kept Chinese police busy by popping out of a crowd of tourists to put up banners or adopt postures of meditation. As each group appeared, police arrived in plainclothes and began to drag the unresisting protesters into vans. The arrests were in sharp contrast to the demonstration the Falun Gong practitioners were commemorating. There they meditated for a day to protest what they believed to be official harassment.
Chinese officials deny the charges of abuse.
They stated that health problems and suicide caused the deaths of the Falun Gong members. The government also claims that the sect caused the deaths of more than 1,500 of its own members. These methods are not popular in China, and their plot will not succeed. The spokesman also claimed victory over the Falun Gong sect, saying that 98 percent of Falun Gong's followers have left the group. However, he still believed that the leaders of the sect could still cause trouble.