Three years after it banned the spiritual movement Falun Gong as an evil cult, the Chinese government is facing another audacious challenge to its power by the group that many believed had already been silenced.

On the day Premier Zhu Rongji delivered his state-of-the-nation address at the annual session of the Chinese Parliament this week, Li Hongzhi - the US-based leader of Falun Gong - went on Chinese television to denounce the government's crackdown on the meditation group.

State television broadcasts in Changchun, Jilin province, were interrupted on Tuesday night by footage of Li Hongzhi's speech and a film accusing the government of staging the self-immolation of alleged adherents in Tiananmen Square last year.

Falun Gong members hijacked the television broadcast for 50 minutes, transmitting to some 300,000 homes before normal programmes of the state-run television resumed.

Local officials have confirmed the arrest of three people in connection with the incident, but central authorities were not immediately available for comment.

The fact that Falun Gong has not been crushed after more than two years of intensive and large-scale government efforts demonstrates a striking change in Chinese society. The stubborn resistance of a hardcore group of followers who have refused to recant their beliefs even under torture betrays a new weakness of the Communist Party.

In the past decade, the party has successfully destroyed the resistance put up by other small groups such as pro-democracy activists or the supporters of the Dalai Lama, by isolating them from broader support or presenting them as tools of outside forces.

Coded e-mails

Both approaches appear to have failed with Falun Gong. The meditation group has broad, solid support in Chinese society, with followers ranging from ordinary workers to high-level government officials. With its yoga-like exercises and blend of ideas from Buddhism and Taoism, the movement claims to have attracted 70 to 100 million followers throughout the world.

It has built an well-organised and dedicated international network through the Internet. Even if it has been driven underground inside the country, Falun Gong has been able to keep in contact with its supporters by sending coded e-mails or passing messages through pagers.

While it appears like the movement inside China has quieted down, Falun Gong followers have gained strength overseas. Last month, 40 Western Falun Gong adherents were beaten and arrested in Tiananmen Square when they tried to stage a protest and unfurl banners.

Reports of the Tuesday television broadcast emerged as seven foreign followers of Falun Gong were detained in the square on Thursday for protesting Beijing's outlawing of the group.

Chinese President Jiang Zemin banned the Falun Gong in 1999 after 10,000 Falun Gong followers besieged the leadership compound in Beijing, demanding official recognition of their faith.

Falun Gong activists say tens of thousands of practitioners have been detained or imprisoned since 1999, and 1,600 have died in custody. Authorities counter that Falun Gong practices have killed 1,900 followers.

To isolate the group, the Chinese government has launched one of its most massive and persuasive propaganda campaigns, describing the group as an evil cult that breaks up families and destroys young people's lives.

The turning point came in January 2001 when five alleged Falun Gong members set fire to themselves in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. Two of them, a 12-year-old girl and her mother, died of their injuries.

The public appeared appalled by the sensational display of self-inflicted death. For months on after that, the state-run press highlighted the immolation deaths as examples of Falun Gong's harmful effect on Chinese society. With public opinion on the government's side, many observers were convinced the Communist Party had succeeded in its attempts to stifle the group.

Harsh campaign

Now, it appears as if many of Falun Gong practitioners have been waiting for the right opportunity to raise their voices again. The movement has said consistently that it poses no threat to the Communist Party and that people who set themselves on fire in Tiananmen Square were not its adherents.

Changchun, the city of 1.3 million where the broadcast occurred Tuesday, is said to have thousands of underground Falun Gong practitioners.

It is the hometown of Li Hongzhi, the former government clerk and spiritual guru who founded the meditation group. In mid-1990s, he was forced to leave the country and currently resides in the United States.

Many of Li's followers however remain faithful to his teachings, despite the government's determination to brutally suppress the movement.

Last month, a U.S.-based religious watchdog released what it said were eight classified government documents issued between April 1999 and October 2001, which if proven authentic document a harsh campaign to crush the Falun Gong, using "forceful measures".

If authentic, the documents also show that Chinese government sees Falun Gong as a more dangerous threat than previous democracy and human rights campaigners. Beijing has been acting as if it were dealing with a subversive organisation plotting to overthrow the party with the help of outside forces.

The audacious timing of Li Hongzhi's broadcast at the peak time of Chinese state-run television -- when the nation was tuning to watch Premier Zhu's work report - will do little to convince the Communist Party that the Falun Gong is not a threat to its power. (IPS)