China is looking to France as a model for dealing with “cults,” such as Falun Gong, the persecuted Chinese meditation movement.
The Washington Post (July 10) reports that Chinese officials hold up the recent French law passed that made “mental manipulation” a crime as a way to control such groups as Falun Gong. The French law, passed in late May, has ignited a hailstorm of criticism in Europe and the U.S. for violating religious freedom.
The June issue of RW reported that Chinese officials have courted American academics seeking their support in the anti-Fulan Gong drive, and now the same officials are “touting the French law as partial vindication for China’s much-criticized human rights posture. They delight in noting that France’s National Assembly passed the measure unanimously and with widespread popular support,” writes Joseph A. Bosco.
Hong Kong’s leader Tung Cheehwa indicates that he is studying the French law for possible use against Falun Gong because it has “more or less the characteristics of an evil cult.” Meanwhile, CESNUR, an Italy-based study center on new religions, notes that Chile is also citing the French case in its attempts to ban and regulate “dangerous sects and/or cults.”
(http://www.cesnur.org/2001/chile_july_01_01.htm)