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That includes the Beijing protest. A deputy for Li, who was in Australia last week, told TIME, "He had nothing to do with the demonstrations in China. They were spontaneous." Indeed, on the day of the protest, a visibly annoyed Premier Zhu received four delegates from the sect and reportedly demanded, "Who is your leader?" "We are all leaders," one replied. Zhu handed the group off to his Complaints Bureau for judgment on the issue of the group's official status and its other concern, the arrest of five members at an earlier regional demonstration.
The government's task is delicate. Zhu, painfully aware of the Tiananmen anniversary, recently ordered authorities to refrain from "crude" crackdowns on social unrest. The group, however, may be harmless to the regime. Li insists that "I want to teach people to be good, not to be involved in politics." Yet historically, secret societies and spiritual masters have challenged, and even toppled, Chinese dynasties, and President Jiang Zemin has stressed a need to "suppress cults and the use of religion to engage in illegal activities."
By Wednesday the government seemed to opt for a fairly hard line. It stepped up surveillance on Falun Gong members and called the demonstration "completely wrong." For now, Li's followers' decision to take to the streets appears to have backfired, and aliens had nothing to do with it.
--Reported by Jaime A. FlorCruz/Beijing