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Jan 3, 2008 8:51 am US/Pacific
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China Censures Falun Gong-Backed Shows In SoCal
SANTA ANA, Calif. (CBS) ―
China has asked Orange County not to recognize two upcoming Chinese New Year performances backed by supporters of the Falun Gong spiritual movement, drawing a stern rebuke from the chairman of the county's Board of Supervisors.
China claims the Falun Gong, outlawed since 1999, is a cult that threatens the government. Falun Gong says it is a non-political movement based on Chinese breathing exercises and whose members have been persecuted.
In a Dec. 17 letter, China's consulate general in Los Angeles said the Chinese New Year Spectacular events aimed to "defame China's image in the international community and undermine the development of U.S.-China relations," the Los Angeles Times reported.
The letter cited by The Times compared Falun Gong to the Branch Davidians, which engaged federal agents in a standoff that ended with the death of 82 of its members near Waco, Texas, in 1993, and to the Peoples Temple, of which more than 900 members committed mass suicide in Guyana in 1978.
The Chinese New Year performances -- Jan. 15 at the California Center for the Arts in Escondido and Jan. 18 at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles -- are produced by New Tang Dynasty Television, a satellite station based in New York that said it offers views differing from the Chinese government's.
The Chinese letter, which was first reported on the Orange County Register's Web site on Wednesday, offended Chris Norby, the chairman of the Orange County board chairman, to whom it was addressed.
He told The Times that it amounted to "an attempt by a foreign government to dictate to American elected officials what organizations we should support, recognize or associate with."
A response he drafted said, according to The Times: "Your letter is a formal request that the Orange County Board of Supervisors cooperate with your government's suppression of Falun Gong. . . . I am personally insulted by your request and will certainly not honor it."
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)