AP Report: Editor Punished after Publishing Poems by Falun Gong Leader

April 8, 2002

BEIJING - A business editor is still working for his newspaper after reportedly publishing two poems said to have been written by the leader of the banned Falun Gong [group], a colleague said Monday.

The Hong Kong newspaper Wen Wei Po, quoting unidentified sources, reported in weekend editions that the editor, who works for Guangzhou Daily's business news department, had been detained and questioned by authorities. It gave no details.

"After the publication," Wen Wei Po said, the poems "aroused attention from the Guangdong security bureau, which immediately launched an investigation. Only then did rumors that 'these poems were written by Li Hongzhi' spread around."

The editor was not identified, and it was not clear whether he knew the authorship of the poems -- or whether they were actually written by Li Hongzhi. A call to a Falun Gong spokeswoman in the United States was not immediately returned.

The editor's colleague in the paper's business news department, reached by telephone Monday, told The Associated Press that he was still working there. The female colleague was familiar with the case but declined to give any further information.

Spokeswomen for the Guangzhou Daily and for the Guangzhou Public Security Bureau said they were unaware of the case.

The poems in question -- two lines of Chinese characters each -- were published in March 30 editions. "General readers would have thought they were commenting on the recent plunges in stock prices," Wen Wei Po said. The poems also appeared to refer to severe dust storms that have plagued northern China in recent weeks.

[...]Li Hongzhi, a former Chinese government grain-bureau clerk who lives in the United States, is the target of an intense campaign of vilification by state media. He attracted millions of followers in the 1990s with his mix of slow-motion exercise, traditional Chinese beliefs and his own teachings.

The Chinese government banned Falun Gong in 1999 as an [Jiang regime''s slanderous term omitted] and has arrested thousands of its followers. Supporters abroad claim that some have been treated brutally by authorities.

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