Du Baichuan, a deputy chief engineer with the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, told reporters that the illegal television signals broadcast by Falun Gong cult followers since Sept. 8 had interrupted transmissions via the SINOSAT system.

The criminal activities made it impossible for people living in remote, rural areas to watch regularly-scheduled TV programs, including remote educational programs, according to the expert.

The TV hijackings even disrupted the TV programs on the Mid-Autumn Festival, a traditional Chinese festival for family reunion, which fell on September 21 this year. The hijackings angered many villagers, Du said.

The hijackings have caused huge financial losses for Sinosat, said Sinosat President Cheng Guangren. They defied common moral principles, he said.

Liu Lihua, director of the radio bureau of the Ministry of Information Industry, said at the news conference that the source of the illegal TV signals has been traced to Taipei City area in Taiwan Province by technical experts through the use of scientific methods.

Relevant detailed technological data may be made public in the event that it becomes necessary, Li said.

(Xinhua News Agency September 26, 2002)