 China court jails religious 'cult' leader for life Shanghai (AFP) Oct 31, 2015 - A Chinese court has sentenced the leader of a religious sect labelled a cult by authorities to life in prison on several charges, according to an official statement, with three of his followers also jailed. A court in the southern city of Zhuhai on Friday also fined Wu Zeheng, head of the "Huazang Zongmen" sect, more than 7.0 million yuan ($1.1 million), it said. The charges included organising a cult, rape, fraud and selling harmful food products. Wu seduced dozens of women by telling them sex with him could give them "supernatural power", state media has said. He also operated a restaurant which claimed the food was cooked with "precious" ingredients. A police investigation showed Wu had amassed an illegal fortune of more than 6.9 million yuan through his activities, according to the official Xinhua news agency. The court also sentenced three of his followers to jail terms of one to four years, but one of those tried escaped punishment, the statement said. The group, which operates under multiple names, claims links to Buddhism. Analysts say China has tightened control over religious worship, among other areas, under the administration of President Xi Jinping, who took office in 2013. Authorities have targeted cults after members of one group beat a woman whom they were trying to recruit to death in a McDonald's restaurant in May last year. In February, authorities executed a father and daughter, who belonged to the Quannengshen group, for the murder. Another 14 members of the sect, whose name can be translated as Church of Almighty God, were jailed for up to three years in July. In another case, a celebrity Chinese "qigong master", Wang Lin, who claimed to conjure snakes from thin air and cure the sick, was held by police on suspicion of kidnapping and murder in July, according to media reports. In a bizarre twist to the case, his ex-wife and mistress offered 2.0 million yuan in bribes to a policeman investigating the matter in exchange for information to help Wang seek a lighter sentence, the official Xinhua news agency said on Friday.
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The Chinese producer of a slick music video which used psychedelic images to promote Communist planning said Thursday it had a little help from its friends -- a US advertising agency.
The shadowy Fuxinglushang Animation Studio, believed to have links to Communist authorities, produced an animated clip about China's 13th Five-Year Plan policy roadmap, which went viral after being released on state media this week.
In it, four cartoon characters -- including a David Bowie lookalike -- travel through a mint-green and fuchsia dreamscape atop lily pads, China's Great Wall and a Volkswagen bus.
"If you wanna know what China's gonna do, best pay attention to the shisanwu," they sing in the chorus.
The phrase translates to "13-five", an abbreviation for the forthcoming blueprint that is being discussed at a meeting in the capital until Thursday.
A spokeswoman for the Beijing-based Fuxinglushang studio said the China unit of the BBDO advertising agency, a member company of the American Omnicom Group, assisted with the project.
"In the process, we continuously coordinated and cooperated (with BBDO)," spokeswoman Li Jinyan told AFP.
The Shanghai office of BBDO declined to comment, but an employee confirmed the studio was a client.
Its New York-based parent company Omnicom is one of the world's largest advertising and marketing agencies.
BBDO has worked with several big-name brands and companies around the world, including Barbie, Gatorade and ExxonMobil.
Fuxinglushang's name could mean "the road to rejuvenation" in Chinese, or be an indirect reference to a street in the capital where state broadcaster China Central Television has an office.
It has a history of producing glossy clips for China's ruling Communist Party aimed at foreign audiences, and the latest video was released in English with Chinese subtitles.
A rubber duck, disembodied lips, mannequins with lightbulb heads and Albert Einstein make appearances in the three-minute video, as does what appears to be the Death Star from George Lucas' Star Wars movies.
"This is a very elevated and distant subject and we wanted everyone to be able to understand it, so we wanted to do it in a light way like a song," Li said.
She added the makers were surprised the production received so much attention.
"We didn't think the video would be this popular... it is quite strange," she said.
The version posted on the YouTube channel of the official Xinhua news agency has been viewed more than 120,000 times, but reaction has been mixed.
"It looks like their research on how to appeal to the West came from studying the propaganda portrayed in Hollywood movies set in dystopian societies," one comment said.
"Then they did acid for inspiration."
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