Two dozen Falun Gong practitioners descended on Orlando City Hall Sunday morning to launch another round of protests against China's treatment of the group.

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After they finished and listened to some speeches, eight members took to their bikes for Washington, D.C. Later this month, hundreds of members from across the world are meeting in Washington to condemn China's repression of Falun Gong.

"We need to end the killing," said Elly Xu, a Falun Gong member who lives in Orlando. Hundreds of Falun Gong practitioners, she said, have been killed in Chinese custody and thousands more detained in labor camps.

The Chinese government, which banned the movement in 1999, considers Falun Gong a political uprising waiting to happen -- even though the group calls itself spiritual and health-conscious, not political, in nature. Like Tai Chi, another Asian meditative art, Falun Gong practitioners gather in parks and open spaces to stretch and contemplate.

Standing in the shadows of downtown's office towers, the group went through its meditative paces as banners and flags snapped in the early morning silence. Among them was Amy Lee, 33, who escaped from China last year and spoke through an interpreter Sunday morning.

"It was very difficult to get out," said Lee, who has spent about two months in Chinese jails for her Falun Gong activities. "They [Jiang Zemin's regime ] are treating Falun Gong very badly. It is wrong."

She is wary of saying too much about herself as her young daughter remains in China.

Not yet 10 years old, Falun Gong has managed to attract millions of adherents and the wrath of mainland China. China banned the group in 1999, when it began arresting members who met and exercised in public squares.

"It's very bad what's happening in China with Falun Gong," said Cheryl Ellefson, of Amnesty International, who attended Sunday's event to support the group's cause.

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