An unidentified man wearing a T-shirt with a Canadian flag is carried away by Chinese police officers in Tiananmen Square after participating in a Falun Gong sit-in demonstration. (AP/Ng Han Guan)

BEIJING (AP) - As hundreds of Chinese looked on in surprise, police detained more than two dozen Westerners who unfurled a banner in Tiananmen Square on Tuesday afternoon and chanted slogans in support of the banned Falun Gong [group].

A group of Westerners, most in their 20s and 30s, had been talking among themselves and taking photographs for nearly an hour when they sat down shortly after 2 p.m. (0600 gmt) in the lotus position, their eyes closed and their hands together as if in prayer.

The nationalities of those detained were not immediately clear, though one wore a T-shirt depicting the Canadian flag and another carried a German flag. "Purge the evil," some chanted in Chinese, a common Falun Gong invocation.

Police vans quickly encircled the group, and uniformed male and female officers began separating those whose arms were interlocked.

Group members - both men and women - resisted for a time before police managed to load them into vans and drive off.

Beijing police refused to confirm the detentions. However, the official Xinhua News Agency reported that 35 foreigners had been detained for displaying a banner of the [Jiang Zemin government's slanderous term omitted]. [...]It said the incident was under investigation.

Falun Gong said 36 people participated, including demonstrators from Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

The high-profile location they chose for their 10-minute protest, Tiananmen Square, is the symbolic heart of China and has been a regular venue for protests by Chinese Falun Gong followers - and the site of tight police security for many years.

On Tuesday, authorities seemed to have advance word that something was imminent; some moved into position at 2 p.m. as if anticipating problems.

When they made the arrests, they used none of the rougher tactics often employed in arresting Chinese followers of Falun Gong - which have included punches, kicks to the head and beatings with truncheons.

Chinese authorities have pursued Falun Gong followers since the government outlawed the group in July 1999.

[...] Falun Gong says almost 300 followers have died in custody during the crackdown and that many more have been tortured and abused. Thousands of followers have been sent to prisons and labour camps.

At the demonstration Tuesday, Chinese looked on, agape, as police swooped in.

"Foreigners," one said.

One demonstrator broke from the group briefly and ran around in circles near onlookers, wielding a banner in the sect's trademark yellow. "America knows, China knows, the world knows! Falun Gong is good," the man said.

Police stopped him shortly afterward.

There were no visible signs of tightened security in Tiananmen Square after the incident.

A statement attributed to the protesters and distributed by Falun Gong via e-mail said the protest aimed to draw attention to persecuted Chinese practitioners.

"We appeal today for the benefit of all Chinese citizens, to let them know that Falun Gong is good and that its practitioners are good people from all over the world," the statement said.

U.S. Embassy officials said they were still trying to obtain information about those detained. Swedish Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Aasa Arvidson said several Swedes were taken into custody.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said she had no information on the protest but reiterated China's insistence that Falun Gong is an [Jiang Zemin government's slanderous term omitted]."

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Category: Falun Dafa in the Media