Is China using the Olympics to crack down on the Falun Gong...

Crackdown on Falun Gong and other dissidents...

With the Beijing Olympics less than one month away, Chinese authorities have reportedly escalated their campaign against adherents of the Falun Gong spiritual discipline, conducting door-to-door arrests and imprisoning thousands in reeducation-through-labor camps and detention centers.

The Falun Dafa Information Center reported Monday that more than 200 Falun Gong adherents have been arrested in Beijing alone in the last seven months.

They say most of these Falun Gong practitioners are now being held in detention centers, while 30 have already been sentenced without trial to reeducation-through-labor camps for up to 2.5 years.

"The fact that these people are being sentenced to such long terms shows that these arrests are not about ensuring a 'harmonious Olympics' as Party officials may try to claim," says FDIC executive director Erping Zhang.

"Although Falun Gong adherents pose no threat whatsoever to the games, the Olympics are being taken as an excuse to put them behind bars for years."

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