According to recent Falun Gong propaganda, 130 Falun Gong practitioners at the Masanjia Rehabilitation Center in China's Liaoning Province have been on hunger strike for more than 20 days in protest of the so-called extension of their terms.

Our inquiry reveals that not only has there been no hunger strike at the Masanjia Center, the charge that the authorities illegally extended the terms of 130 Falun Gong inmates there, which supposedly caused the alleged hunger strike, was completely false.

At Masanjia, as well as China's other rehabilitation centers set up to correct breakers of minor criminal offenses with terms ranging from 1 to 3 years, inmates' legitimate rights and interests are fully guaranteed and meticulously protected. As a rule, most inmates go home upon or before the expiration of their terms. Only a handful of inmates, due to exceptionally bad behavior such as deliberate sabotage, receive extended terms in accordance with law.

Falun Gong is a notorious doomsday cult that is responsible for more than 1600 deaths in China. Though the Chinese people have long since repudiated it, this dangerous cult is still operating in this country with impunity, smearing China and making troubles to China-U.S. relations every now and then. People should watch out lest they be taken in by its malicious rumors and gimmicks designed to buy public sympathy on the cheap.