overseas media on Falun Gong

Chinese TV stations broadcast an interview on November 20 in which a jailed US resident renounced her faith in the Falun Gong.

Teng Chunyan, 37, who was convicted in November 2000 for espionage in China, denounced the Falun Gong in a lengthy interview.

The half-hour programme, in which she was interviewed in English, was shown Monday morning on the English language channel of state-run broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV).

In the interview Teng, who still has 18 months of a three-year jail sentence to serve, expressed support for the government's crackdown on Falun Gong, outlawed more than three years ago as an "evil cult".

"Yes, I believe Falun Gong is a cult," Teng said.

"They manipulate their followers," Teng said in the English interview.

Teng further called the teachings of exiled Falun Gong leader Li Hongzhi "inconsistent".

"He tells us to conform with Chinese law, but yet he asks us to go out to Tian'anmen Square and hand out brochures which is against the law," she said.

"At first I thought the Chinese government was quite intolerant of Falun Gong followers, but when I saw their violence, the way they acted so aggressively -- like exercising on Tian'anmen Square even during national holidays -- I felt the government was right," she said.

Teng said she has been treated well in prison.

Teng said that upon the end of her sentence, she would return to the United States where her husband and mother continue to live, and resume her career as an acupuncturist.

Teng was arrested in July 2000 and convicted that November of "prying into state intelligence for overseas organisations" after obtaining pictures of practitioners incarcerated in a Beijing mental hospital and passing the photos on to foreign media.