By David Murphy in Beijing

07/18/2002
Far Eastern Economic Review

THEY WILL NOT GO AWAY. More than three years after Falun Gong burst onto China's political stage by [appealing for justice to] the leadership of Chinese government in Beijing, the group is proving startlingly immune to government efforts to eradicate it. In recent months it has [resisted] Beijing's suppression in a series of daring [...] broadcasts on the state's tightly controlled television network.

Those interceptions took a dramatic hi-tech turn between June 23 and June 30 when Falun Gong sympathizers managed to [tap] into a state-owned satellite to broadcast pro- Falun Gong messages. The broadcast interruptions were a coup for Falun Gong, [...], and show that the group has the tactical skills to survive the [Jiang regime's] repressive campaign. It also has the ability to deeply embarrass China's domestic security apparatus, for which the destruction of the Falun Gong is the highest priority.

The authorities may have unwittingly contributed to this latest tactic. The intensity of [the Jiang regime's] pressure has forced the movement to use fewer people and concentrate on high-profile actions such as [tapping] into broadcast systems. "They do not need a lot of people for this," says another Beijing-based diplomat [...] "They use little input for a large output."

[...]

Chinese officials said [they] had used high-powered radio signals to jam Sinosat transponders and then sporadically broadcast Falun Gong messages and scenes of Falun Gong followers exercising.

[...]

A New York-based Falun Gong spokesman said the interruptions were unlikely to come from foreign countries. "With so many science and hi-tech graduates among our [practitioners] it's not surprising that the skills to do this exist in China," said Zhang Erping.

Falun Gong, the focus of the biggest state [suppression] since the one on student-led demonstrations in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989, is proving far more successful than any other domestically based opposition [...]

But times are getting tougher for Falun Gong in the face of the unrelenting government effort. Thousands of followers are in jail and hundreds have died in custody, say human-rights groups. Diplomats who follow Falun Gong say that the group has shown great tactical agility, moving from high-profile sit-ins to an information campaign involving leaflets, mass-e-mailings and establishing Web sites. In the months leading up to the satellite-signal [overriding,] Falun Gong followers had [tapped] into cable-television networks in half-a-dozen different cities.

[...]

Meanwhile, the government is taking no chances and has posted security officials to Sinosat's control facility to monitor broadcasts and ordered security boosted at television stations across the country. To keep up with the Falun Gong, though, they will have to think outside the box. "I expect they [Falun Gong] will find even more creative avenues to deliver the message in the future," says Zhang.

http://www.feer.com/articles/2002/0207_18/p017region.html