But other practitioners in the camp said their faith in Falun Gong and Li Hongzhi, the movement's U.S.-based founder, was unshaken. She said she intends to continue practicing when she is released. In one room, a police officer and a follower who said she has recanted pressed an elderly inmate to do the same. There is hope for everyone. Falun Gong attracted millions of followers in the 1990s with its slow-motion exercises and philosophies drawn from Buddhism, Taoism and Li's ideas.
Followers say it promotes health, moral living and even supernatural powers.
The government banned the group as a threat to communist rule and public safety, and thousands have been detained in the crackdown. The government accuses Li of controlling followers for his own political and financial ends. The section of the camp for female practitioners is of one of nine in Masanjia, said its director, Zhang Chaoying. The facility, spread across 4,900 acres with fields and factories, was established 44 years ago and holds more than 3,000 inmates, he said. He said 483 female practitioners are in the camp, although reporters saw only about a third that number.