The ban breaks China’s constitution and international human rights covenants

The ban breaks China’s constitution and international human rights covenants. I don’t oppose the government, but I will protect Falun Dafa with my life.”Armed only with their faith, Falun Gong protesters have become a tourist attraction, playing almost daily on the vast plaza in central Beijing, with gala shows on public holidays or anniversaries of the official campaign against the movement. Evading police cordons, disciples of the founder of Falun Gong, Li Hongzhi, flock to Tiananmen.Their journeys may have taken days, but their protests will last only seconds. Once they assume the lotus position, or other poses from the group’s pseudo-Buddhist exercise regime, the waiting policemen pounce.

Some pull out banners proclaiming the cherished principles, “truth, compassion, forbearance”, or scatter leaflets, before police beat them and drag them off. Tourists who can’t resist a snap will find their film quickly removed.There is no shortage of willing martyrs for the cause, and they are learning from bitter experience. On the vet’s first protest trip to Beijing in September 1999, it was almost laughably easy for security forces to target these new arrivals, with their unfashionable clothes, and earnest belief that the government would reconsider its decision. Her mission was thwarted in a cheap hotel 10 minutes from the square.

“A policeman asked me, ‘Do you practise Falun Gong?’ We disciples cannot lie, so I said ‘yes’ and was detained for ‘breaking social order’. But I didn’t even get to Tiananmen!”Now she sleeps rough, or moves between safe houses with help from a network of believers, communicating through pagers and public phones to avoid detection.Like others here, her next protest could label her a “hard-core element”, earning time in a “reform through labour” camp. Police can send suspects to labour camps for up to three years without trial “Ringleaders” get 18 years. Human rights organisations estimate that at least 10,000 Falun Gong members are detained in Chinese labour camps and “transformation” or detention centres.There is good reason to fear deportation. If their treatment in Beijing is horrific, away from the capital anything goes.