BEIJING (AP) - China plans to launch a television satellite that can block attempts by Falun Gong protesters to hijack its signals, the state satellite-launching company said Thursday.
The announcement comes a month after Beijing accused Falun Gong supporters abroad of committing a "TV hijacking" by breaking into signals on a satellite that transmits state television to areas throughout China.
The new French-made Apstar VI satellite is to be launched in 2004, said Geng Kun, a spokeswoman for the China Great Wall Industry Corp.
The launch has been planned for some time, but Great Wall added antijamming technology after the Falun Gong incident to prevent further "malicious interruptions," Geng said.
The Sept. 9 break-in on the government's Sino Satellite, or Sinosat, was especially embarrassing for communist authorities because the system was created to increase their control over what Chinese television viewers see.
Foreign channels licensed to be shown in China must use Sinosat, letting Beijing shut down broadcasts that anger communist authorities. But people in the industry say Sinosat's older technology leaves it open to hijacking by protesters.
Chinese authorities say they traced the Sept. 9 broadcasts to nearby Taiwan. Taiwanese authorities promised to investigate, though they said the signal could have come from anywhere within a wide area of the Pacific Ocean.
The new satellite's signal will cover China and Southeast Asia and reach as far as Australia and Hawaii, Geng said.
Falun Gong had several million followers when it was banned in mid-1999 as a threat to communist rule and public safety.
On Wednesday, a lawyer for the group said Falun Gong supporters have sued Chinese President Jiang Zemin in U.S. federal court, accusing him of committing torture and genocide in China's crackdown.
Falun Gong supporters also have broken into local cable television systems in cities across central and eastern China over the past year.
They show videos proclaiming the benefits of the group and protesting the crackdown, in which activists claim that more than 500 people have been killed.
Thousands of Falun Gong followers have been detained. Most are released after a few weeks. Police deny mistreating anyone, though they say some have died from hunger strikes or from refusing medical help.
A court this week upheld sentences of up to 20 years in prison for a group of 15 Falun Gong followers convicted of carrying out a cable television break-in March 5 in China's northeast, according to state media.
Communist officials have denounced the protest videos as "reactionary propaganda" and say they threaten social order. The government calls Falun Gong an "evil cult" and says its teachings prompt followers to commit murder or suicide.