China's Growing Holy War.(Falun Gong receive harsh treatment by Chinese authorities)

As night falls over the working-class district of Yau Ma Tei in Hong Kong, the bustling streets become silent and murky. Inside a second- floor tenement, two dozen Falun Gong practitioners sit closely together, chanting from their handbooks. Seated against the wall, a lone man does not chant. He is a tall, thin Chinese northerner with a pockmarked face. As new members enter the room, he glances up nervously, as if to register their faces. Two years ago, he joined the group of Hong Kong believers. Yet in almost every way, he is unlike them. Some of the men and women in the group have spent time in prison, or have been tortured. All of them are eager to talk. He never speaks. Recently, some practitioners saw him entering the offices of the central government in Hong Kong. Others note with dread that he lingers until the end of every session, as if to mark down all that is said. "We all believe he's a secret agent," says one of the Falun Gong members later that night. "But our teacher says not to turn away anyone, even if he comes to destroy us."

The Chinese government is out to destroy Falun Gong, a fast-growing spiritual movement that blends elements of Buddhism, Taoism and traditional Chinese morality. The group claims to have 70 million members on the mainland, and an additional 30 million followers in the rest of the world. Beijing describes the group as an "evil cult" with subversive intentions, and has stepped up its violent crackdown. According to Falun Gong, Beijing has killed more than 100 followers over the last two years and thrown tens of thousands of members into prison camps and psychiatric hospitals. The Chinese government disputes those figures--but there is no denying that the conflict between the two sides has devolved into an increasingly desperate war of wills. That seemed apparent last week when five protesters--thought to be Falun Gong followers, although the group's leadership contends they weren't--set themselves on fire in Tiananmen Square. One of the demonstrators died, the other four are in the hospital. According to a source in Hong Kong with knowledge of Chinese policy, hard-line Chinese leaders now consider Falun Gong the country's No. 1 threat--more serious than independence activists in Taiwan, Tibet and Xinjiang.

With neither side inclined to back down, the struggle is spreading to other parts of Asia. Under siege on the mainland, Falun Gong is taking its recruitment and public relations campaigns to Taiwan, Macau, Singapore and especially Hong Kong, where followers held a massive gathering two weeks ago to publicize their plight. Beijing is countering by pressuring governments in the region--most of which have invested heavily in China--to avoid offering sanctuary to its enemy. The issue threatens to become an early flash point in relations between China and the Bush administration. Last week Secretary of State Colin Powell, in his first meeting with Chinese Ambassador Li Zhaoxing, decried the assaults on Falun Gong and called for the freeing of its members held in Chinese prisons and labor camps. "The message the secretary delivered was one of tolerance and rule of law," said a State Department spokesman. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao shot back that any U.S. criticism of China's handling of the group would have dire bilateral consequences.

As the war escalates, some China watchers now suggest that, as happened with student protesters in 1989, the communist leadership is beginning to split over how deal with Falun Gong. According to the Hong Kong source, Jiang Zemin is fearful of Falun Gong because the movement has caught hold within the Communist Party ranks. "So many party members believe in Falun Gong that [he] wants to scare them," says the source. Frank Lu, director of the Human Rights Information Center in Hong Kong, asserts some Communist Party officials are uncomfortable with Jiang's fierce crackdown. "Falun Gong is showing that it's not afraid of death, not afraid of anything," Lu says. "That must scare the party."

Outside of mainland China, Falun Gong finds what it desires most-- freedom of assembly and speech, and the group is using those liberties to appeal for an end to the persecution. At recent conferences in Taiwan and Hong Kong, attended by thousands, the group held parades, candlelight vigils and "experience-sharing" sessions. Followers carried large photographs of members who'd been assaulted or killed by Chinese authorities. "This is how they beat up our practitioners," said Mei Zhang, 41, a recent Chinese immigrant to Australia, who took part in the Hong Kong conference earlier this month. She was holding a photograph of a middle-aged Chinese practitioner whose legs were red and bloated from torture. Standing in front of Beijing's government office in Hong Kong, Falun Gong members from 12 countries held aloft a large banner condemning China for killing followers. Says Falun Gong's Hong Kong spokeswoman Sophie Xiao: "Our brothers and sisters inside the mainland are the suffering body. We are the mouth screaming."

Lu says that for oppressed Falun Gong members on the mainland, Hong Kong has become a promised land. To them, the former British colony's ...