New York-Based Leader of Banned Group Targeted by China for Arrest

As the Chinese government kept up its propaganda war against an outlawed meditation and exercise group, authorities here issued an arrest warrant Thursday for the group’s founder, Li Hongzhi, who now lives in New York.

State media stopped short of demanding Li’s extradition from the U.S., where the 47-year-old has permanent residency. But the government said it would seek assistance from Interpol in catching the man it branded as a con artist and “evil figure.”

Chinese police also announced that they had seized more than 1.5 million books, videotapes and compact discs promoting the teachings of the Falun Gong, or “wheel of law,” sect. Images broadcast over and over on state-run television showed Falun Gong books being crushed by steamrollers or fed to pulp machines.

The media blitz is part of the biggest ideological cleanup campaign waged by Beijing in 10 years. For the past several nights, China’s national 7 p.m. newscast has been extended by nearly half an hour, with almost every segment devoted to the drive to stamp out Falun Gong.

The arrest warrant issued by China’s Ministry of Public Security came with a description of Li and accused the former soldier of “disturbing public order.”

Official media said nearly 750 people had died as a result of Li’s teachings and Falun Gong’s “malicious fallacies.” Li has denied any connection to deaths of members who he said might already have been ill or unstable.

In New York, Falun Gong issued a statement Thursday that said Li is a permanent resident of the United States and that there is no extradition treaty between the United States and China.

“However, it is not clear whether the Chinese government will attempt to use other means to force his repatriation or otherwise threaten his personal safety,” it said.

“Practitioners from around the world have expressed deep concern for the safety of Mr. Li and for his mother and sister who are still in China at this time,” the statement said.

Falun Gong called on U.S. authorities to provide “the necessary measures” to ensure Li’s security.

The sect, which combines Buddhist and Taoist beliefs with deep-breathing exercises, was banned by the government last week. The Communist regime has regarded Falun Gong as a serious threat to its political supremacy ever since 10,000 of the group’s adherents suddenly assembled outside the central government compound in Beijing in April to demand legal protection for their beliefs.

The sect has a following in China estimated at up to 60 million, rivaling the Communist Party in size, although official government estimates put the membership of Falun Gong at 2 million.

Television stations Thursday repeatedly aired footage of Chinese residents criticizing the group or renouncing ties with it. In one interview, a bespectacled woman dismissed Falun Gong’s teachings as hokum and pledged her allegiance to Marxism.

Communist Party cadres have been ordered to break with the sect or surrender their party membership. Falun Gong practitioners have told of mass detentions, raids on homes and ideological struggle sessions intended to produce self-criticism and denunciations of the sect, a throwback to the activities seen during the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution.

Li, who travels worldwide to spread his teachings, says that he has no political ambitions and called on Beijing to open a dialogue.

Washington has criticized the crackdown as heavy-handed.

*

Times staff writer John J. Goldman in New York contributed to this report.