The People's Daily, China's leading newspaper, is scheduled to carry a byline article Monday exposing the evil nature of Falun Gong and the swindle by cult leader Li Hongzhi.

The article says that holding the banner of "truth, benevolence, and forbearance", Falun Gong uses deceitful tricks and bumbling exercises as a disguise for its brainwashing mental control of its practitioners.

Since the ringleader concocted the so-called Falun Gong doctrine in 1992, there have been acts as brutal as its practitioners' self-burning in Tian'anmen Square on January 23 on the eve of the Spring Festival, China's Lunar New Year. The tragedy has fatally exposed the true nature of Falun Gong, the article says.

It further cites Li's confidence tricks in which self-nominated with the title "master", Li Hongzhi tried to deify himself by falsifying his birthday to share the same date of birth with Sakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism. He even used Buddhism terms to polish his own doctrines.

The rest of his fake stories were even more ridiculous. For example, Li boasted of his magical power of being able to turn a snake into a human figure and his doctrine containing all science categories as diverse as astronomy, geography, history, chemistry, physics, astrophysics and philosophy.

Under his command, some 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners gathered around the Zhongnanhai Compound, office site of China's top leaders, to protest against the media's exposure of Falun Gong's pseudoscientific nature in April 1999.

After the Central Government banned the cult in July of 1999, Li Hongzhi, who had fled and submitted to his western anti-China masters, came to a more open stage in directing his followers to undermine the Chinese Government, the article says.

(China Central Television 2001.02.12)