BEIJING — Moths before expanding the crackdown to include the popular Falun Gong spiritual movement, Chinese authorities arrest 21,000 people as part of a two-year “anti-superstition” campaign, according to an Amnesty International report March 23.
“The crackdown Is politically motivated, and the vast majority of its victims are ordinary people who merely exercised peacefully their fundamental rights of freedom of belief, association and expression,” the report said.
Authorities have targeted a number of spiritual groups that, like the Falun Gong, are offshoots of popular traditional breathing and meditation exercises known as qi gong, the London-based group reported.
The Falun Gong movement was banned last July because the Chinese government considered it a public menace.
Amnesty International is asking Chinese officials to stop human rights violations they claim take place as part of the government’s campaign to combat “heretical organizations.”
China’s State Council offered no response to Amnesty’s report, The Associated Press reported.
China’s human rights record came under more scrutiny March 23 at the general conference of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights.
In an appearance before the commission, U.S. Secretary of State Madeline Albright pushed for support of a U.S.-sponsored resolution that she said expresses “concern about widespread denials of political, cultural, labor and religious freedom in China.”
Three senior Chinese delegates walked out before Albright’s address and returned after she finished speaking.
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