Celebrities from southwest China's Yunnan Province gathered Tuesday to start an anti-Falun Gong association.

The association aims to respect science and safeguard public security.

The province organized the first national research group on anti-cult issues and developed a set of scientific methods to transform diehard cult members with a success rate of 91 percent.

Xu Taiyuan, the former provincial head of the Falun Gong cult, initiated the association. He said, "The cult disturbs the public order and breaks the law. Practitioners bring harm to themselves as well as society."

(Xinhuanet 2001/02/06)