SEOUL, South Korea - Dressed in yellow vests, 30 Falun Gong followers handed out paper fans and hats to soccer spectators in a provincial city Tuesday, hours before China made its World Cup debut against Costa Rica.
South Korea had promised that it would block any anti-Chinese protests ahead of the match, which fell on the anniversary of the bloody 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Beijing.
"We are here to welcome the Chinese and cheer for them," Kwon Hong-dae, head of South Korea's Falun Gong office, said in a telephone interview. "We have never opposed China or condemned them."
Kwon said their vests were emblazoned with the slogan: "Victory! China."
"We also wanted to let the Chinese know that they can practice Falun Gong freely in South Korea," Kwon said.
Police did not intervene with the Falun Gong followers' campaign, he said.
China banned Falun Gong in July 1999 as a threat to communist rule and a social menace. It says Falun Gong is a cult that has caused 1,700 deaths.
Falun Gong followers say they practice peaceful meditation movements that builds health and happiness. They say hundreds of followers have died as a result of police abuse and torture during the crackdown.
The June 4 anniversary of the Tiananmen Square movement is the most sensitive in the Chinese political calendar.
Hundreds and possibly thousands of Chinese were killed when soldiers shot their way into the center of Beijing on June 4, 1989. The communist government declared the protests a "counterrevolutionary riot."