China Turns Up Heat on Banned Sect

BEIJING, Jan. 12 (AP) - China's Communist Party has ordered redoubled efforts to expose and attack the outlawed Falun Gong sect, days before followers of the group gather in Chinese-ruled Hong Kong.

``Thoroughly criticize the Falun Gong cult's political nature and threat to society, and the broad masses will increase their resistance to the threat of cults,'' Propaganda Minister Ding Guangen told heads of government propaganda departments.

``They must fully recognize the duration, complexity and ferocity of our battle with Falun Gong,'' Ding said in the speech, carried Friday in the Communist Party newspaper People's Daily.

Frustrated by Falun Gong's defiance of an 18-month crackdown, China's government has recently stepped up its rhetoric against the spiritual group. China's wholly state-run media accused Falun Gong of conspiring with anti-Chinese forces in the West as well as "separatists" in Taiwan and Tibet.

If anything, Falun Gong's resistance may be increasing, with state media last week making the rare disclosure that hundreds of followers have protested on Beijing's Tiananmen Square each day since December.

The renewed government campaign comes as 1,000 Falun Gong (also known as Falun Dafa) followers gather for a rally and conference this weekend in the former British colony of Hong Kong, where the sect remains legal despite being banned elsewhere in China.

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