(CNN) July 22, 2001 -- BEIJING, China -- Chinese police have quashed small scattered protests on the second anniversary of the banning of the Falun Gong spiritual movement.

Eight people were seen being bundled into police vans Sunday morning on Beijing's Tiananmen Square -- far fewer than during many previous protests on key dates associated with Falun Gong.

One woman, holding a white banner and shouting slogans, was pushed by police into a van where an officer hit her repeatedly, rocking her head back with each blow, according to Associated Press news agency reports.

Officers threw another woman to the ground before hustling her and three others away. Police yelled "Disperse! Disperse!" at a crowd that formed around the van to watch.

http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/east/07/22/chinasect.arrest/index.html

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BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese police on Sunday dragged at least five followers of the Falun Gong spiritual movement off Tiananmen Square, squashing sporadic protests on the second anniversary of China's crackdown on the group.

One woman was posing in a meditating position when a plainclothes officer slapped her and threw her into one of several vans that weaved through crowds of camera-toting tourists who filled the square, a witness said.

Earlier, police arrested two women after they unfurled a yellow banner protesting against China's treatment of Falun Gong.

Police grabbed the women by their hair and threw them into a van that sped away from the vast square as 30-foot (9-meter) high speakers blared patriotic songs, a witness said.

Officers also arrested a man and a woman protesting nearby.

The protests demonstrated the stubborn resistance of the Falun Gong in the face of a massive government propaganda campaign and the biggest security operation since the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre of pro-democracy protests.

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