Falun Gong fills China's spiritual void

Falun Gong, one of the major mystic sects to appear in China in recent years, is trying to fill the spiritual vacuum left by the progressive abandonment of socialism since the death of the last of the legendary leaders.

Banned since July 1999, the movement regularly defies the powers that be. Everyone remembers the arrest of thousands of practitioners after their attempt to circle the government buildings in Beijing on April 25, 1999.

Headed since its creation by the charismatic Li Hongzhi, now in exile in the United States, the sect claims it has more than 70 million adherents -- more than the Communist Party which only has 60 million.

One fact is obvious: repression, however strong, will solve no problems when faced with an organization which is determined and is willing to martyr itself.

Today the battle is being carried out with strong arm tactics. Police violence and the increasing number of arrests show once more the inability of the authorities to solve a problem which is obviously beyond them.

With its usual pragmatism, the government will perhaps be tempted to negotiate with Li Hongzhi in order to save face and, most of all, to avoid showing its vulnerability to the world at large.

-- Le Matin, Lausanne, Switzerland