The United States risked Beijing's ire on the eve of a visit there by President George W. Bush by lodging a formal diplomatic protest over the treatment of US-based Falungong practitioners expelled from China last week.
"We have submitted a formal protest to Chinese officials regarding our concerns about prompt consular access and allegations of mistreatment of US citizens by Chinese police," spokesman Richard Boucher said.
"That is an issue we will continue to follow up," he said.
The complaint was delivered to the Chinese foreign ministry by diplomats from the US embassy in Beijing just a day before Bush was due to visit the capital.
The protest followed a meeting on Tuesday between State Department officials and a group of citizens who are Falungong practitioners and claim that they had been subjected to physical abuse after being detained by Chinese police.
About 25 representatives of the group branded as an "evil cult" by China briefed department officials on their treatment after they were arrested in the Chinese capital.
One official told AFP after that meeting that Washington would protest against any mistreatment of American detainees in China, or any violations of the US-China consular agreement.
The official added that 36 of 37 US Falungong practitioners held in China last week were expelled before they were granted consular access.
Several practitioners claimed that once they had been manhandled onto planes bound for the United States and Canada, they recognized Chinese security agents who they said were put on the flights to keep watch on them.
Boucher declined to comment specifically on their treatment or confirm that they had been in fact been dealt with roughly.
"I don't know that it's for us to try to report on their exact physical condition," he said. "They have publicly alleged mistreatment and we protested to the Chinese."
China said last week it had expelled 53 foreign followers of the banned movement, many of whom tried to unfurl banners publicizing the group in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.
Chun Lee, 24, a practitioner from San Jose, California, said she was intercepted by plainclothes police officers in a pedestrian tunnel leading to Tiananmen Square on February 14.
"One stepped on my face and crushed my glasses," she told reporters on Tuesday outside China's embassy in Washington.
"They kicked me in the back and all over with their boots, I was also punched in the face and my nose began bleeding heavily."
Donna Ware, from Washington, was arrested along with her husband, and said she was threatened by police, who held her in a chokehold, as they took her away from the square.
Falungong activists and supporters have stepped up pressure on Bush to raise the plight of thousands of jailed practitioners in China in his talks later this week with President Jiang Zemin.
Some 94 members of the House of Representatives from 28 US states have signed a letter to the president calling on him to bring up the issue when he is in Beijing.
China banned Falungong in 1999 and has instigated a severe crackdown against the group.
Bush, who is due in China on Thursday is expected to raise US objections to the crackdown, according to officials.
In Beijing meanwhile, Chinese police on Wednesday imposed smothering security on a part of central Beijing for Bush's visit as dissidents reported tighter surveillance of their movements.
China has traditionally released political prisoners ahead of key visits by US leaders as a goodwill gesture and to gain positive US media coverage.
But this time it has only released a Hong Kong businessman recently sentenced to prison for smuggling Bibles into mainland China, and partially freed a senior Tibetan religious leader jailed for leading the search for the reincarnated Panchen Lama.