It is absurd to call China's legal action against Zhang Hongbao as some kind of persecution effort against religious leaders

Chinese embassy spokesman

A spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington said that Mr Zhang "is a criminal suspect and a fugitive on China's most wanted list".

The Zhong-gong movement is a meditative religious sect similar to the better-known Falun Gong movement. The group was founded in the early 1990s and boasts some 30 million followers.

Mr Zhang was earlier this week released on bail after spending 13 months in detention on the American Pacific island of Guam. He was detained after trying to enter the US with a false visa.

Asylum application

Mr Zhang fled China when the government outlawed the Zhong-gong movement and began arresting its members.

Chinese diplomats are making representations in the US on the case, providing documents intended to establish Mr Zhang's guilt.

"It is absurd to call China's legal action against Zhang Hongbao as some kind of persecution effort against religious leaders," the Chinese embassy spokesman Zhang Yuanyuan said.

Mr Zhang is waiting for the completion of his asylum application in Guam.

His followers say that the charges against Mr Zhang are false and that he is a victim of political persecution.