3 Taiwanese I-Kuan Tao members arrested in China

Beijing, Dec. 13 (CNA) Three Taiwanese nationals and members of the I-Kuan Tao (Yiguandao) religious group were arrested by police in Guangdong Province, China, according to China's Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) on Friday.

The three suspects, identified by their last names Chou (周), Chiang (江) and Hsieh (謝), were arrested on suspicion of "organizing and practicing as members of a cult that undermines law enforcement," TAO said in a statement.

Relevant departments will handle the case "in accordance with the law" and "protect the legitimate rights and interests of the parties concerned," it added, indicating that the three have already been appointed lawyers in the case.

According to Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉), secretary-general of the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), a semi-official organization tasked by Taiwan's government with handling technical matters involving China, the three Taiwanese are members of I-Kuan Tao, which is classified as a salvationist religious sect by Beijing.

During a Legislative hearing on Dec. 4, Luo told lawmakers that the Chinese police broke into a residential building on Oct. 10 and arrested a group of people whose identities were not disclosed.

Among them, three were later confirmed to be Taiwanese, with an average age in their 70s, who were reciting verses with other followers there, he said.

Meanwhile, various sources have since revealed that the incident, which involved about 200 people, happened in Guangdong.

During the hearing, Luo said family members of the arrested Taiwanese sought help from the SEF, which later reached out to Beijing-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits but to no avail.

At the time, he said the SEF also tried other channels in order to learn more about the situation, but the information received was limited.