Police in southwestern China said Thursday they raided a secret meeting place of the outlawed Falun Gong spiritual movement, arresting five people and confiscating stacks of books, pamphlets and videotapes.
An additional 30 people were sent to re-education classes following last month's raid in Fengjie, a city near Chongqing, said an official in the Fengjie Political and Judicial Office. He gave only his family name, Liu.
The five were arrested on charges of smuggling Falun Gong materials from abroad and downloading them from the Internet, Liu said. He said they also face charges of organizing secret gatherings of Falun Gong, which was banned four years ago after it staged a massive protest in central Beijing.
The Chinese government calls the group a cult that drives members to suicide. Falun Gong says it is being unfairly persecuted and only wants the freedom to practice its beliefs.
Liu said the secret meeting place raided was the home of one of those arrested, Yu Xiaoru, whom he called the leader of a Falun Gong cell.
At Yu's home, police seized books, leaflets, videotapes, computer disks and several banners promoting the group, Liu said. He said Yu, 72, smuggled many of the materials from Taiwan.
Liu said another of those arrested, Feng Chuanjia, mailed an article to Taiwan that criticized the government crackdown on the sect. The article was posted on the Internet, Liu said.
Thirty other people briefly detained for attending meetings at Yu's house have been forced to attend re-education classes organized by the police and city government, Liu said.
He identified the other three arrested as He Wenyi, Yu's wife, Zheng Chunfeng and Liang Chongqiong.
In an editorial to be published Friday, the Communist Party newspaper People's Daily accuses Taiwanese activists of using Falun Gong to stir up trouble on the mainland, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
The editorial blames activists seeking formal independence for the island, which has been ruled separately from the mainland since 1949, but which the communist government claims as its territory.