A Chinese spokesman said in Washington Monday that more and more people have realized that the Falun Gong cult poses a serious threat not only to the Chinese people but also to the civilized society all over the world.

Chinese Embassy spokesman Xie Feng said at a news conference that the Falun Gong cult has never stopped breaking law and committing crimes. The number of deaths caused by the practice of Falun Gong in China has exceeded 1,700, and the number of people who have been diagnosed of having mental problems exceed 600, he said.

Deceived and misled by Li Hongzhi's heretical fallacies, such as the doomsday of the world and the explosion of the earth, Falun Gong practitioners, when falling ill, refused to go to hospital or to take medication, Xie said.

As a result, while some of the practitioners died tragically because of delayed treatment, others suffered from mental disorders. Some committed suicide or even became brutal killers of their relatives, he said.

In June, the Falun Gong cult outside China stole the frequencies and technical parameters used by Chinese radio and television programs and used the same frequency to interrupt those programs. "This illegal act is like having other's peoples keys made to break into their houses," Xie said.

"By openly and deliberately attacking the Sinosat in contempt of international laws and the regulations, the Falun Gong cult was unscrupulously breaking the order of wireless communications and launching a challenge against civilization," he said.

"The international community should unite in condemning and punishing this cult," Xie said.

(Xinhua News Agency July 23, 2002)