BEIJING, Apr 13, 2001 -- (Agence France Presse) Six Chinese members of a Buddhist-inspired Taiwanese spiritual group have been jailed for up to eight years by a court in northern China, a court official said Friday.
The six, members of the Guan Yin Method movement which claims half a million members in China, were sentenced at a court in the city of Xian in Shaanxi province for printing books propagating the group's views and trying to recruit new members at local universities.
The harshest sentence was handed down to an adherent identified as Liu Shiyao, who was condemned to eight years in jail, while the other terms ranged from three to six years in jail, according to the official.
China has banned the Guan Yin Method movement, calling it an "evil cult" similar to the Falun Gong and slamming it as an "anti-communist organization," the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said.
According to the center, the movement alarmed the officially atheist communist party after it started spreading within the party's own ranks.
The sect appeared in China in 1992, four years after its foundation by a Taiwanese woman who is now revered by followers as "Supreme Master Ching Hai" and "Enlightened Master from the Himalayas."
Ching, treated like a queen by her followers, travels the world preaching a mixture of Buddhist and Taoist beliefs, although neither religions recognize her movement.
The movement preaches clean living and high ethical standards, and similar to other groups such as the Falun Gong its adherents engage in meditation and breathing exercises.
The sect, which claims followers in more than 40 countries including Japan, the United States and South Korea, was previously investigated by Taiwanese authorities, but no wrongdoing was found.
The Guan Yin Method group is just one among several targets of a drive by the Chinese government to weed out what it sees as the unhealthy influence of spiritual groups.
The most notorious example is the 21-month campaign against the Falun Gong, which has reportedly led to the deaths of more than 100 adherents while in detention. ((c) 2001 Agence France Presse)