The official demons of China booked the banquet hall at the Congress Plaza Hotel for the weekend. Nearly a year after the Chinese government turned the full weight of authoritarianism on their obscure spiritual movement, the followers of Falun Gong in this country had spread word on the Internet to convene in Chicago.
People feel more devotion than ever.
It was a potent image not lost on the members of a movement that has grown increasingly bold and media-savvy over its first year in the international spotlight. It has grown fiercer in its own defense, developed a robust community on-line and staged dozens of protests at Chinese government buildings around the world while cameras rolled. In an era of rapid change and government uneasiness, the crackdown on Falun Gong has become among China's broadest and most sustained campaigns since the suppression of the democracy movement in 1989. Thousands of people have been detained for defying the ban, many of them tortured, and many sent for re-education, Amnesty International says. Although some practitioners continue to flout the ban in China, followers here suggest the publicity may have won them new supporters.