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Friday, June 08, 2007

China works against practitioners of Falun Gong through North American news media

CFP: By Judi McLeod, Friday, June 8, 2007 - The Peoples' Republic of China, whose tainted food exports continue to plague North America, has for a long time been polluting peoples' minds with propaganda.

China's message is delivered in daily newspapers overseas. And the message deliberately targets groups maligned by the Communist government.

The message is served up on a daily basis in a town close to you.

"In Canada, the Toronto-based Chinese Canadian Post is distributed with an insert of the People's Daily, the official mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist party, which is larger than the newspaper itself. The paper's publisher, David Lim, is known in the Toronto Chinese community for his ties to the consulate." (The Epoch Times, June 7, 2007).

Shamefully, the publication receives advertising from the ultra politically correct Ontario government and the City of Toronto, both corporations kept afloat by taxpayers.

Taxpayers, whose dollars pay for the advertising, likely do not know that their money goes to support a regime with one of the worst human rights records in history.

The Toronto edition of the Ming Pao newspaper, one of the largest newspapers read mainly by Hong Kong Chinese in Canada, also prints content from a Mainland Chinese newspaper.

"Ming Pao Canada CEO Ka-Ming Lui wouldn't describe in detail his newspaper's arrangement with Guangzhou Daily. He denied that Ming Pao was paid to publish the content, but he also admitted Ming Pao was not paying for it. (The Epoch Times).

"He also said his newspaper has a clear policy not to publish Falun Gong advertisements. 'This (policy) has been in place for many years--it's no secret.' Lui said Ming Pao papers across North America follow the same policy."

The "policy" is one that allows discrimination against a minority--the practitioners of Falun Gong--and if any other government imposed such a policy public outrage would be the result.

New Tang Dynasty Television, which reports regularly about the persecution of Falun Gong in China ran up against this policy when it tried to place an ad for its international classical dance competition to be held later this month.

Ming Pao said at least three other Toronto Chinese-language newspapers refused to print the paid advertisement.

Surely it is a travesty that no Chinese-language newspaper, aside from the Chinese edition of the brave Epoch Times, would print the ad in Ottawa.

That's Ottawa, the nation's capitol and home of the Conservative Canadian minority government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper!

The information on the status of Chinese controlled newspapers comes from Chen Yonglin, who made a high-profile defection from the Chinese consulate in Sydney, Australia two years ago.

In an era where the politically correct mainstream media follows the path of least resistance, The Epoch Times conducted an in-depth interview with Chen and publicized never-before-released documents to substantiate his charges. The documents show how China is following a course to "discredit" and "intimidate" five specific target groups: Tibetan exiles, Taiwanese, Uighur Muslims, democracy activists--and most of all Falun gong practitioners.

The strategy of this ongoing campaign is an attempt to control Chinese-language media overseas, and through student and community groups acting as front organizations. Chen, whose conscience forbade him from doing the work, which he says came complete with spying on Australians in five groups and interfering in their activities, raised the alarm.

Chen served as the first secretary of the consulate in Sydney and oversaw the consulate's political department, which was in charge of combating the five groups.

As head of the political arm, he was a member of the Special Anti-Falun Gong Working Group, which included the head of each department at the Sydney consulate and the Consul general.

This sort of set up is not peculiar to Australia. According to Chen, the same type of group in is action in Chinese missions worldwide.

Minutes of one of the Working Group's meeting obtained by The Epoch Times, dated February 7, 2001, were signed off by both the consul general and deputy consul general of the consulate and included reports of 22 anti-Falun Gong activities.

Among them is an entry about a Chinese-language newspaper that was reprimanded for publishing a Falun Gong advertisement.

Meanwhile, not even a distance marked by thousands of miles can keep the practitioners of Falun Gong safe from the Peoples' Republic of China.

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