BEIJING, April 25 (Reuters) - Members of Falun Gong staged scattered protests on Beijing's Tiananmen Square on Wednesday, two years to the day after the spiritual group stunned Chinese leaders by demonstrating on their front doorstep.
But there was no sign of the large disturbances which have typically marked sensitive anniversaries relating to the group since it was outlawed in October 1999 as an "evil cult."
After thousands of detentions, an intense state media campaign and five self-immolations by alleged Falun Gong members, Beijing appears to have bludgeoned the group into submission -- or deep underground -- within China.
Police detained about two dozen suspected Falun Gong members on the square and bundled them into waiting police vans, witnesses said.
Plainclothes officers grabbed one young man as he tried to unfurl a yellow banner, they said.
Security around Tiananmen was especially tight, with police checking identification cards and questioning visitors to the plaza and at least 20 police vans on hand to whisk away the handful of protesters.
A top official in Beijing's "anti-cult" body said 98 percent of Falun Gong followers in China had abandoned their faith, many disillusioned by self-immolations on the eve of January's Chinese Lunar New Year in which a 12-year-old girl and her mother died.
"After the self immolations, everyone realised Falun Gong was a dangerous cult because they saw its members take such an extreme and destructive path," Wang Yusheng, Secretary General of the China Anti-Cult Association, told Reuters.
OVERSEAS BATTLE JUST BEGINNING
Once common Falun Gong protests on Tiananmen Square appear to have diminished markedly since then.
But overseas, the battle with Falun Gong has only just begun.
When 10,000 followers surrounded the Chinese leadership compound on April 25, 1999, to protest against attacks on the group in state media, few outside China had ever heard of the eclectic mix of meditation and breathing exercises.
Now, Falun Gong is seen by many around the world as a symbol of the struggle against religious persecution in China.
Overseas followers have put Falun Gong -- also known as Falun Dafa -- at the top of the human rights agenda and now threaten to de-rail Beijing's bid to host the 2008 Olympic Games.
A rag-tag group of U.S., Hong Kong and European practitioners run a slick public relations machine, issuing regular updates on the government crackdown, arranging protests and lobbying politicians around the world.
"None of us really had any idea about how to do grass-roots human rights work like this until the crackdown made it necessary for us," said Scott Chinn, a volunteer at the Falun Dafa Information Centre in New York.
To mark Wednesday's anniversary, the centre arranged a series of protests, published a report on police abuse of women practitioners and issued a statement saying Beijing banned the group because it feared social unrest.
In Hong Kong, where Falun Gong is legal, about 20 members demonstrated in the city centre to demand an end to what they called "unreasonable persecution" by Beijing.
"When we started in 1999, people used to avoid us and some even scolded us for causing trouble," said Hui Yee-han, a Falun Gong representative in Hong Kong.
"Now people ask for more information and some offer their support," she said. "It's changing for the better."
Falun Gong says more than 190 followers have died in police custody since the government ban. The government has acknowledged a handful of deaths it ascribes to suicide or natural causes.
CHINA LOBBIES IN GENEVA
As the International Olympic Committee's July vote on the host city for the 2008 Games approaches, Chinese officials are struggling to match Falun Gong's efforts.
Beijing sent a delegation to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights annual meeting in Geneva in April to lobby government officials and members of the public.
"A lot of foreigners we spoke to said they agreed Falun Gong was a cult but they did not support the way we handled it," said Wang, the anti-cult official.
"I think their opinions are very valuable and I will pass them on to the government," he said.
Wang also said he was concerned by images of police kicking and beating Falun Gong members on Tiananmen Square.
"I regret this very much," he said. "These people do not have sufficient understanding of the rule of law."
But he maintained that many foreign sympathisers mistook Falun Gong for traditional Chinese kung-fu while others used it as an excuse to attack China.
"We must have more communication and dialogue about Falun Gong between Chinese and foreign governments, civil organisations, media and ordinary people."