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Thursday, September 30, 2010

Public Safety Looking Into Death Threats of Falun Gong Reporter


Epoch Times - The Minister of Public Safety [Vic Toews], who is responsible for national security, has directed his officials to investigate these threats and work to ensure Wang Tao’s personal safety,” wrote MP Hiebert in an emailed response to the Epoch Times.

Tao Wang had a successful business in China until his work as a television reporter in Vancouver attracted the attention of the Chinese Communist Party. Wang works for New Tang Dynasty Television, a Chinese-language TV station that is among the few to broadcasts stories within China’s borders about topics the Chinese regime considers sensitive, such as government corruption and human rights abuses.

‘It is absolutely unacceptable for agents of a foreign government to be threatening a Canadian citizen.’ — MP Russ Hiebert


But agents went beyond shutting down his business and vague threats against Wang and his family. Wang says they also threatened his life.

“They said, ‘If you ever go public on this, you are—in Chinese words—seeking death.’ I believe it was a very clear message.”

Read more...



Wednesday, September 29, 2010

AI Warns Drug Companies Involved in Chinese Regime’s Organ Transplant Industry

Watch video here

NTDTV: The growing organ transplant industry in China has attracted investments of foreign pharmaceutical companies, specializing in organ transplant drugs. But a representative from Amnesty International in Switzerland says these companies need to consider more than just business when engaging with China because of the illegal practices taking place there.

[Danièle Gosteli, Economy & Human Rights, Amnesty International, Swiss Action]:
“Of course if an international company knowingly participates and continues to do so even with the knowledge of organ trade, this would have a very bad effect on its reputation.”

Companies like Swiss-based Roche, that markets its transplant drugs in China, have come under fire from rights advocates for ignoring violation of ethics taking place under the Chinese regime.

According to official statistics, about 10,000 organ transplants are carried out in China every year, and 65% of them are estimated to come from executed prisoners, usually without proof of consent. An ongoing investigation by international human rights advocates also point to the source of organs coming from living Falun Gong practitioners who are imprisoned for their beliefs. Under the Chinese regime, their organs are removed while they are still alive and sold to transplant patients.

Danièle Gosteli says these practices should pose a problem for drug companies.

[Danièle Gosteli, Economy & Human Rights, Amnesty International, Swiss Action]:
“These pharmaceutical companies cannot guarantee the sources of organs for those patients receiving the transplant.”

Gosteli says international companies should pressure the Chinese regime to make the sourcing of organs a transparent practice.

[Danièle Gosteli, Economy & Human Rights, Amnesty International, Swiss Action]:
“There is a time when one needs to have a higher standard than just corporate competitiveness when it comes to matters of human rights violations.”

NTD News, Switzerland

‘Truth, Compassion, Tolerance’ Falun Gong Art Exhibit Graces Queen’s University


Epoch Times- by David Kilgour: Since 2004, this exhibition has toured more than 200 cities in 40 countries. The pieces were done by artists who practise Falun Gong (or Falun Dafa), an ancient discipline which seeks to improve body, character, and ethics. It contains the essence of traditional spiritual systems, like Buddhism and Daoism (Taoism), combined with a set of gentle exercises. Its core principles are “truth, compassion and forbearance.” It today evidently has millions of practitioners of diverse backgrounds in more than 100 countries.

The Party has repressed Falun Gong with savage brutality continuously since July 1999. Torture, rapes, beatings to death, detentions in forced labour camps, brainwashing—all have become the daily lot of many Falun Gong practitioners across China. Practitioners have put up a non-violent, principled, and energetic defence of human rights in China and in the other countries where practitioners now live.

In an effort to end the barbaric persecution, Professor Kunlun Zhang and other artists decided to express their personal understanding of the universe in this exhibit. Realism oil painting, or New-Renaissance, was chosen as the genre for its narrative capabilities, accessibility, and purity.

Read more...

Chinese homeowners fight demolitions

USA Today: Human rights activists says the government is doing little to end the evictions. "Forced eviction is one of the worst human rights violations in China," and ... Read more...

China police probe 'black jails' for protesters

BBC News: In a report released in November last year, Human Rights Watch interviewed 38 people who said they had been victims of forced detention when attempting to ...

Phelim Kine, Asia researcher for Human Rights Watch, told AFP news agency that the police investigation into Anyuanding Security Services was an "encouraging development".

But he said the case was only the tip of the iceberg.

"The fact is that the problem of black jails goes far beyond one company. It involves a web of government officials, security forces, huge numbers of plainclothes thugs and dozens of facilities in Beijing alone.

"Meaningful action against black jails will require the political will to locate and close all of them, freeing their detainees and prosecuting their captors."

Read more...

Google warns Gmail users on spying attempts from China

Help Net Security: Recently, a number of users have been witnessing a glaring red banner popping up when they accessed their Gmail account, saying
"Warning: We believe your account was recently accessed from: China (IP ADDRESS)".
Even though his Gmail account is wholly unconnected with his work for the human rights organization, he says that it is possible that he was targeted because...Read More...

King Quotes Garner Inspiration…

Compiled by New York Film Festival Blog: Here is a small trivia challenge for you. Who said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere?” If you guessed Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. you would be correct.

However, you may not have heard this next quote. Dr. King said, “He who proactively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.”

That is a powerful wake up call. Reading it brings to mind a human rights tragedy happening right now.

Many Falun Gong practitioners are struggling to obtain one of the most precious of all human rights. That is the freedom to believe what they choose in the space between their ears.

Here is a not so trivial question. Who is withholding that right from them?

If you answered, “the Chinese Communist Party”, right again! With their track record of killing those who support democracy and those who support other freedoms, it wouldn’t have been hard for you to guess. Read more...

Irish Government Funds CCP Propaganda Through Confucius Institutes

Epoch Times -... accused her (Chen Zhili) of torture and extrajudicial killing while carrying out the persecution of Falun Gong, which she did during her time as education minister. ... The essence of the great international propaganda effort is to influence public opinion and governments’ judgments regarding relationships with the CCP. In particular, the increased international propaganda seeks to convince people that Communist China is a benign partner rather than a hidden threat.

Read more...

Is China Afraid of Its Own People?

The diplomatic tussle over the East China Sea has calmed down, but a bigger foreign-policy problem awaits: China's newly empowered masses won't take 'no' for an answer, and Beijing is right to be scared.

Foreign Policy
by Willy Lam: That explains why at least nine activists, according to the watchdog Chinese Human Rights Defenders, were detained or warned not to participate in the ... Read more...

Friday, September 24, 2010

Seminar/Oct. 3: Healthy Living is not a Dream with Dr. Hu Naiwen, Vancouver BC - Free

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China threatening to kill Canadian Falun Gong NTDTV reporter

Without Radical Change, China’s Current Development Has No Future

China Scope: Editor’s note - In his analysis packed with numbers, Professor Zhou Tianyong of the Central Party School presented a disturbing forecast on China’s future. China’s growing and ageing population, overburdened land, scarce water resources, worsening pollution, and intense hunger for steel and oil are not exactly what the Chinese leaders want to hear. “Sustaining (China’s) current 2H1R (High energy consumption, High pollution, Resource depletion) development model,” writes Zhou, is “absolutely out of the question.” The following report is translated from excerpts of his article.] [1]

1) The Crossroads: Over Population and a Botched Birth Control Policy
At the end of 2009, China’s population was 1.334 billion. By 2040, a conservative estimate puts the number at 1.55 billion. China’s current agriculture land, per capita, ranks sixth from the bottom of the world. Based on China’s agriculture population, its per capita arable land is the third lowest in the world, beating Bangladesh and Vietnam.

Only 5% of Chinese people live on 64% of the land in the West Part; the remaining 95% concentrate in the East Part, which has 32% of China’s total size. Based on the East Part alone, the population density is 364 people per square km. That’s number three in the world, behind Bangladesh (1102) and India (393).

Should China continue its current family planning policy? Or make adjustments? Or abolish it? It seems a Catch-22. If China abandons the one-child policy, its population may exceed 1.65 billion by 2040. That will create a huge burden on employment, resources and the environment. But with an ever expanding urban population and a long term one-child-per-family policy, China will have a big ageing problem associated with the high cost of care for senior citizens, which will reduce the country’s economic vitality. After 2040, the population will probably begin to contract. A shrinking and ageing society will result in a sharp and prolonged economic downturn, causing catastrophic consequences to the Chinese nation in the next thirty years (2041 – 2070). If that scenario comes true, China, after thirty years of rising, will plunge into a 30-year decline again.

2) Overburdened Natural Resources and Environment

China has 20% of the world’s population, but its land size is only 6.44% of the world. The majority of Chinese people live in the East Part. China has 1.74 million square kilometers of desert, or 18.12% of its total area. There is an additional 300,000 square kilometers of potential desert, which affects the life of 400 million people. Using international standards, China’s arable land is low grade in general. Only 6% of China’s farmland produces more than 1000 kg of grain per mu (666 square meters); a total of 3.57 million square kilometers of land suffer from water and soil erosion; more than 10% of the arable land is polluted by contaminated water, solid waste and heavy metal; a total 1.35 billion mu of grassland has become desert or wasteland.

The fresh water supply is insufficient and badly polluted. The agriculture water shortage is 30 to 50 billion cubic meters per year; the industrial water shortage averages 6 billion cubic meters, causing 200 billion yuan in economic losses; of China’s 667 cities, 420 cities experience a water shortage. The total city water shortage is 10.5 billion cubic meters.

Water pollution in the rural areas causes rapid deterioration. It is economically beyond salvage. Pollution by chemical fertilizers, pesticides and industrial waste water are commonplace. Irrigation with contaminated sewage, improper treatment of animal waste, and household garbage all directly contribute to the worsening environment. Nearly the entire rural population of 700 million people has drinking water that is substandard; about 190 million people’s drinking water contains hazardous chemicals that exceed the standard. Among the people with various health problems, 88% can blame their illness on dirty drinking water; and 33% of deaths are related to water contamination.

Garbage pollution in the cities and country is severe. China has 600 million urban residents. Using a conservative estimate, each person produces 200 kg of trash per year. Annually, Chinese cities and towns produce 120 million tons of trash. At least two-thirds of Chinese cities are surrounded by trash. Every year, 80% of the world’s electronic trash is shipped to Asia. Among that, at least 90% ends up in China.

3) A Severe Land Shortage

By 2040, the gap between land availability and demand will grow to between 856 million to 1.556 billion mu. Among that, urban development requires 132 million mu. Transportation and water conservation need 137 million mu. Counting reconstruction of old factories and mines which may create 30 million mu, the net increase of land demand for transportation and water conservation is 107 million mu.
Land usage in the country may be relaxed by policy. As a result, the villagers may take anywhere from 150 million to 358 million mu of land for homes. If the agriculture output is unchanged, the arable land shortage in China will reach 700 million mu by 2040.

4) The Fresh Water Shortage is a Hard Constraint

By 2040, the fresh water shortage will reach between 200 to 300 billion cubic meters. Using Japan’s water conservation model as a benchmark, China’s agriculture, industrial, living and ecological demand require 1.18 trillion cubic meters of water. That number approaches the total water resource for China. Even if we find 10% more fresh water, and increase our water supply to 880 to 990 billion cubic meters, our fresh water shortage is still between 191 to 301 billion cubic meters. Water is hard to import, and it will be a bottleneck for China’s development.

5) The Need to Import 10 to 18 Billion Tons of Steel over the Next 30 Years

Over the next 30 years, China’s demand for 55% grade iron core will be hit by a shortfall of 17.3 to 32.6 billion tons. Based on the author’s data, by the end of 2004, the global iron reserve was 80 billion tons. From the China National Bureau of Statistics Yearbook 2008, China’s total potential iron core reserve was 22.6 billion tons. Assuming a 35% grade, China’s maximum iron reserve is about 8 billion tons. If China’s economic development reaches the level of developed nations by 2040, it will need 22% to 33% of the world’s total iron reserve. Assuming China cannot find new iron mines before 2040, China will have exhausted all its iron reserves. In addition, it still needs to import 17.3 to 32.6 billion tons of 55% grade iron cores.

6) China will consume 50% of the World’s Energy

Using the modest energy consumption pattern of developed nations, by 2040, China is expected to consume 50% the world’s energy. In the next 31 years, using a modest plan, China will use 61.5 billion tons of crude oil and 25 trillion cubic meters of natural gas. Assume the world’s oil and natural gas reserve stay at 2008 level, then in the next 31 years, China will consume 26% to 40% of the world’s oil reserve; it will use about 2.3% to 8.1% of the global natural gas. Assume China’s population by 2040 is 1.55 billion, and China becomes a developed country, barring a major change in global energy output or China’s development model, China will need half of the world’s total energy.

According to the “China Statistical Yearbook 2009,” China’s current oil reserve is 2.89 billion tons; the natural gas reserve is 34 trillion cubic meters; the coal reserve is 326 billion tons. China’s oil and natural gas reserves per capita are below one tenth of the world average. Even as a coal rich nation, China’s per capita coal reserve is still less than 40% of the world average. Using the energy consumption rate in 2009, China’s oil reserve can last only 7.08 years; natural gas will last 39 years; and coal 108 years.

Due to China’s overpopulation, scarce resources, and environmental restrictions, sustaining the current 2H1R (High energy consumption, High pollution, Resource depleting) economic model is absolutely out of the question. Even if we reduce our energy consumption to a moderate or low level of the developed countries, it is still unlikely to succeed. Read more...

Uyghur Organ Harvest Witness Narrowly Escaped Deportation

Epoch Times: Mr. Abudureyimu told The Epoch Times that while he knew a deportation attempt was coming, he did not expect it so soon, nor the force with which the authorities attempted to execute the procedure.
“They came with a lot of cars, a lot. And many police officers… There were a lot of people in the room. ‘Stand up, come with us!’” he said, recounting the raid. “They told me take all my clothes off, to get naked. I refused.”
Just before he was to board the plane that afternoon at the international airport, Mr. Abudureyimu was able to consult with his lawyer, Philippe Currat. Mr. Currat advised that he had the right to refuse to board the plane. This he passed on to the police in the strongest terms—
“I was extremely agitated, I said ‘I tell you: I will not board the plane!’”
—and after more back and forth, the authorities allowed his return to his residence.
The parting words of the police were that they will be back to try to deport him—when, he does not know.

As the only witness of state-run organ harvesting who is outside China and willing to speak of his experiences, Abudureyimu’s case is important to researchers of human rights in China, and in particular of state-run organ harvesting, who see both immediate and long-term significance in how his case is handled.
“Up to now, I am the only Chinese to come out talking this way about live organ harvesting, and also the only police officer to have worked in a detention center seeing this happen,” Mr. Abudureyimu said.
Researchers Ethan Gutmann and Jaya Gibson (an Epoch Times staff member) were the first to learn of Mr. Abudureyimu and his experiences several years ago. His case has been followed with concern and increasingly, frustration, as European governments have consistently failed to address the crux of the issue.
“The West must stand up against tyranny and protect witnesses such as Nijat,” Mr. Gibson said
in a written statement.
At stake is not just one individual, Mr. Gibson argued, since if Mr. Abudureyimu’s case is handled judiciously—if he is able to give testimony to an official body, and granted protection as a political asylee—more witnesses may stream forth.


Read more...

Escape from China: A Falun Gong torture victim’s story


Look here to view some of the torture methods used on Falun Gong

The Khaleej Times: LONDON –But ghosts from the past often come back to haunt her. “Even though my body has been released, my mind is still in the prison,” she told the Khaleej Times. “The memories come back sometimes when I’m reading a book, or on a bus. I find I’m suddenly crying again.”

Annie was first arrested back in 2005 for practising Falun Gong, a spiritual practice which has been banned in China and its followers viciously persecuted. She was taken to a detention centre, and from there began a nightmare ordeal or torture and ideological indoctrination, which brought her to the verge of physical and mental collapse.

Her case is a reminder that, even though China has emerged as one of the world’s most powerful economies, it remains one of the worst violators of human rights around the world. Unverified reports suggest that some 3,406 Falun Gong practitioners have died in Chinese labour camps as a result of torture and abuse.

Amnesty International has described the deaths as indicative of the government’s “callous disregard for the lives of people detained solely for their peaceful activities”.

Falun Gong, a meditative practice similar to Tai Chi, was banned in China in 1999 after adherents gathered outside the national appeals office in Zhongnanhai, Beijing, to protest against the arrest of 50 practitioners in Tianjin. Although peaceful, the demonstration was reported to have caused consternation among Communist Party chiefs, who feared an uprising similar in scope to the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.

The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Manfred Nowak, visited China in 2005 and documented cases of abuse of Falun Gong practitioners, as well as Tibetans and democracy activists. “The repression of Falun Gong is a fact, and incidences of torture remain widespread,” Nowak said in a telephone interview with the Khaleej Times on Wednesday.

She was forced to sit for 20 hours a day on a hard plastic stool without moving. She said that she was beaten even if she so much as scratched her head without asking permission. She can remember vividly the moment when her spirit finally broke. “I was lying on a bed and writhing around in agony,” she said. “I was at the point of total collapse. I was almost mad with pain.”

Read more...

Thursday, September 23, 2010

New Yorkers Call on Chinese Premier to End Persecution of Falun Gong

Watch Video here

NTDTV: As world leaders gathered in New York on Tuesday for the United Nations General Assembly, local Falun Gong practitioners appealed in front of the UN for individuals persecuted in China.

[Yi Rong, New York Falun Dafa Assocation]:
“We are asking for an immediate end to the persecution of Falun Gong, stop the arrest of Falun Gong practitioners and release all those imprisoned. At the same time, we want the four main culprits behind the persecution: Jiang Zemin, Luo Gan, Zhou Yongkang and Luo Jing to be brought to justice.”

These wishes—also stated on the banners—were shown along with a demonstration of the Falun Gong exercises. The group has been appealing around the world since July 1999, after the Chinese regime began cracking down on the practice.

A New York Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Mei wanted to give Wen Jiabao a personal message.

[Ms. Mei, New York Falun Gong practitioner]:
“I want to tell Wen Jiabao to stop this persecution. Tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners are still being persecuted, and many more are having their organs removed while they are alive. I hope Wen Jiabao can try his best to end this persecution, and do a good deed for himself and the Chinese people.”

Those who learned about the persecution echo these calls.

[Anonymous, New York Resident]:
“I think every country that persecutes religion, history has shown that they suffer as a result. If you want your country to flourish, you should let people express themselves, and you would be much better off down the road.”

According to the Falun Dafa Information Center, the Chinese regime had estimated that between 70-to-100 million people in China practiced Falun Gong by 1999. But for the past 11 years, the regime has systematically vilified, detained, tortured and killed many of these individuals, with the aim of eradicating the practice.

The Center is calling on U.S. President Barack Obama to urge Wen Jiabao to free all Falun Gong prisoners of conscience. More...

China threatening to kill Vancouver Falun Gong reporter

Staffer for Falun Gong-linked TV station told he's not safe in Canada; Mounties take report 'seriously'

Vancouver Sun: A Surrey-based reporter says China's Ministry of State Security is threatening his family, life and livelihood for his critical coverage of the Chinese government.

Surrey resident Tao Wang moved to B.C. from China in 2007 and began working as a local general assignment reporter for the Canadian branch of Falun Gong-affiliated New Tang Dynasty Television (NTDTV) in July 2009.

Most of his assignments for the international broadcaster have been innocuous, on topics such as the opening of the Canada Line, the Olympics and the harmonized sales tax.

However, some of his reports have been critical of the Chinese government and its practices. NTDTV is one of the few networks with dissenting views that broadcasts in the Communist nation.

"Some of the reports I think they don't like are on David Matas, the Nobel Prize nominee and human rights lawyer who spoke at the International Congress of the Transplant Society in Vancouver, talking about his investigation regarding organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners in China," Wang said. "I've also done reports on [Canadian Security Intelligence Service director] Richard Fadden's comments about foreign interference on Canadian governments."

He said the threatening phone calls began a month ago and have become increasingly harsh, escalating to the point of death threats.

Const. Peter Neily of Surrey RCMP confirmed to The Vancouver Sun that the detachment's major crimes section has launched an investigation into the matter.

"We're taking this very seriously and we're in the process of speaking with witnesses and trying to determine followup from here," Neily said. "I can also say we're engaged with the complainant in creating a safety plan. We'll review their current arrangements ... to make sure they're safe while we investigate our file."

Wang, who also owns a company in China that sells medical equipment to retailers, said the threats began in August when several of his company's clients were visited by agents of China's Ministry of State Security (MSS).

"They told them that I participated in illegal activities in Canada that are harmful to the national security of China and asked them to stop doing business with my company," Wang told The Vancouver Sun.

On Sept. 2, he said, a man who identified himself as an MSS agent passed a phone number along through a company manager in China, telling Wang to call him.

"I asked him why he interfered with my business and he said, 'You are a smart man; you should know the reason very well,' " Wang said.

"[Eventually] he said, 'Your activity in Canada is a threat to China's national security....' He said I must stop all activities in Canada, which, in my understanding, is my reporting with NTDTV. This is the only thing I do. He said if I don't follow instruction, they will take [further] action on my company."

On Sept. 14, an agent relayed another message via a company manager, this time telling Wang to submit a written guarantee not to participate in any political activity in Canada. When these requests went unanswered, Wang said he received another phone call from the agents -- and a threat against his life.

"They said, 'You actually think there is nothing we can do to you because you are in Canada?' They also mentioned, 'If you ever go public on this, you are -- in Chinese words -- seeking death.' I believe it was a very clear message."

The same day, Sept. 17, two MSS agents went to Wang's company in China.

"[They] sealed up all bank accounts and inventory and threatened [all 10 of] my employees. They became jobless," Wang said.

Besides contacting the RCMP, Wang also went to his member of Parliament. He said Russ Hiebert's office told him Wednesday it has asked the public safety and foreign affairs ministers to look into the matter.

The ministers' offices did not return The Sun's requests for comments by press time, but Neily said the RCMP could team with other agencies for the investigation.

"With files of this nature, that may have an international repercussion, there are various agencies that we could liaise with in order to determine the scope of it internationally," Neily said.

The Sun's calls to the Consulate-General of the People's Republic of China in Vancouver for comment were not returned.

This is not the first time NTDTV has received threats. From April to June 2005, the broadcaster's Toronto office received five envelopes containing a white powder, at least one of which was confirmed to be boric acid.

The envelopes were all addressed to "Falun Dafa," also called Falun Gong -- defined by supporters as a spiritual movement that embraces truthfulness, compassion and forbearance, and by the Chinese government as an "evil cult." The Chinese Communist Party banned Falun Gong in 1999.

While not all NTDTV employees are Falun Gong practitioners, Wang has no doubt the affiliation is a large part of the reason the broadcaster has drawn the government's ire.

In January 2004, the Consulate General of the People's Republic of China in Toronto sent a memo, obtained by The Vancouver Sun, to sponsors and supporters of NTDTV's annual Chinese New Year gala, urging them not to participate due to "the nature of [the Falun Gong] organization."

In July 2010, according to the Toronto Star, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's office bowed to China's requests to block reporters from NTDTV and The Epoch Times -- both Falun Gong-affiliated outlets critical of the Chinese government -- from covering President Hu Jintao's public appearances in Ottawa.

Joe Wang, president of NTDTV Canada, praised Tao Wang's decision to go public.

"I'm very proud of him; I know it's not an easy decision," he said.

"They don't believe in what's right, the Chinese government. They only believe in power, and I think in this case, the power is the truth.... For a civilized society, this kind of thing cannot be tolerated. If [Tao Wang] has really done something illegal, work with the RCMP in Canada and arrest him. But threatening? Bullying? It's like a gang, especially from a powerful government. This cannot be tolerated."

The station has recommended Tao Wang stay home from work for a few days, but Wang has vowed to return to work soon and continue reporting as usual.

"I will keep doing this," he said. "Someone has to stand up and say, 'Yes, you are powerful, and you have all these secret agents and resources, but this is Canada. The job I choose is my personal decision.'

"The more scared they are, it means my work is valuable. It means it's effective; why else would they target me?"

Read more...


CHINA’S WAR ON WOMEN TURNS 30

Cypress Times: September 25 marks the 30th anniversary of the Chinese One Child Policy. Affecting 1.3 billion people, it is the most massive, systematic human rights atrocity in history. It doesn’t matter whether you are pro-choice or pro-life on this issue. No one supports forced abortion, because it’s not a choice.

1) Forced abortion is traumatic to women. It is a form of torture.

2) In China, sex-selective abortion and infanticide are common. Because of the traditional preference for boys, most of the aborted fetuses and murdered babies are girls. According to a recent study published in the British Medical Journal, the overall sex ratio for China is 120 boys for every 100 girls. Nine provinces had ratios of over 160 boys for every 100 girls, for second children, where the first child is a girl. The article stated, "Sex selective abortion accounts for almost all the excess males." This practice constitutes "gendercide."

3) Because of this gendercide, there are an estimated 37 million more men than women in China today. This gender imbalance is a major force driving sexual trafficking of women and girls in Asia.

4) China has the highest female suicide rate of any country in the world. It is the only nation in which more women than men kill themselves. According to the World Health Organization, approximately 500 women a day end their lives in China. Could this extraordinary suicide rate be related to coercive family planning??

5) Women who have violated the policy are often forcibly sterilized. Forced sterilization is a serious human rights abuse and can lead to life-long health complications.

Read more...

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Screaming the Truth

National Review: By Jay Nordlinger - The U.N. has reopened for business — who can be safe, except for dictators? — and I walked by it this morning, as I do many mornings. And, as on many mornings, people were screaming against the Chinese government: screaming about Tibet; screaming about the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners; screaming about the brutality of the regime overall. I snapped a photo of the scene: here.

Barely a day goes by when I don’t receive, in my inbox, a report of another Falun Gong practitioner tortured and murdered in a prison camp. Meanwhile, what the West cares about is whether the darlings at Guantanamo Bay get four pedicures a week or five.

...Look, I know we need to engage China — I’m all for it. But we don’t need to bow to their rulers, and we don’t need to apologize for our laws, or our human-rights record. And my heart belongs to the screaming Chinese and Tibetans outside the U.N. They should know that some people hear them.

Read more...

Obama: Call upon Chinese Premier to Free all Falun Gong Prisoners of Conscience

FDI: New York --President Obama, you face the premier of a nation where 8% of the population is being systematically 'eradicated'.

By the Chinese government's own estimates, there were 70-100 million people in China practicing Falun Gong by 1999 -- more than the entire population of France. For the past decade, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has led a campaign to 'eradicate' the practice, sending millions to detention centers, forced labor camps and prisons. The use of torture to 'transform' Falun Gong practitioners is wide-spread in these facilities. Thousands have died as a direct result of persecution.

Democratic governments and international human rights groups affirm this reality.

In March 2010, a U.S. House Resolution asserted "Falun Gong practitioners and their family members ... have suffered persecution, intimidation, imprisonment, torture and even death for the past decade solely because of adherence to their person beliefs." (news / full text)

The Amnesty International 2010 Annual Report says, "the campaign against Falun Gong intensified, with sweeping detentions...enforced disappearances and deaths in detention following torture...Former prisoners reported that Falun Gong constituted one of the largest groups of prisoners." (report)

The "Falun Gong issue" is much more than a human rights atrocity -- it is a central factor eroding the moral fabric of Chinese society, and precluding the healthy development of a peaceful, stable China. Until Falun Gong practitioners are free, China itself will remain a prison of sorts.

Read more...

Havel endorses Nobel Peace Prize for Chinese dissident


Prague Daily Monitor - Liu Xiaobo was sentenced to 11 years in prison over the Charter 08 initiative for the improvement of human rights standards in China which was inspired by the Charter 77 Czechoslovak anti-communist humans rights manifesto.

China warned against awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to Liu Xiaobo, similarly like last year when it criticised another Chinese candidate Hu Jia, an activist fighting for AIDS patients' rights.

Read more...

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Chinese Regime Hires Security Company to Snuff out Dissent

A group of women petitioners kneel as they cry outside the court in southwest China's Chongqing municipality on May 13, 2010, as they holds up pieces of paper condemning mafia kingpin Wen Qiang during his appeal.

Epoch Times: Reports of Anyuanding’s violent treatment of petitioners have circulated before.

A letter published by Chinese Human Rights Defenders, an NGO, originally written by Chongqing petitioners, says that children as young as 10 and old people aged 82, along with disabled individuals, were all locked in a room after having all their personal property confiscated.

Boxun.net, a website that focuses on human rights in China, says “Anyuanding specially prepared truncheons, cords, steel needles, handcuffs, shackles, high-voltage electric batons, leather whips, drugs and other instruments of torture, and set up a kind of ‘torture chamber’ for special force personal to deal with ‘unruly citizens who alienate themselves from the government.’”

This language may be particularly haunting to older petitioners: It is a variation on a slogan that was commonly used during the Cultural Revolution. Read more...

Apple Censors Falun Gong, Dalai Lama IPhone Apps in China

TomWilt.com: The Chinese iPhone also appears to be subject to the country’s set of Internet controls known by critics as the “Great Firewall.” Searching the App Store for “Falun Gong,” the name of a spiritual sect banned in China as a cult, caused iPhones in the Beijing Apple Store to display a results loading screen indefinitely, though no Falun Gong apps appear to be offered in any countries. In contrast, searches for other terms quickly returned a results page.

Other iPhone apps that might be seen as sensitive by Chinese authorities are still offered in the China App Store. Apps that, for instance, show YouTube videos or let users update their Twitter accounts remain available even though YouTube and Twitter are blocked on the Internet in China. Read more...

Twitter Clone Helps Chinese Family Thwart Authorities

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- It was a typical case of property seizure, like those that happen nearly every day in China, but with a key difference.

This time microblogs blasted the story across the Chinese Internet, causing an immediate outpouring of sympathy this month for the Zhong family at the center of the dispute, and outrage against the local officials that tried to evict them.

Chinese authorities recently decided to require microblogs to appoint "self-discipline commissioners" responsible for censorship, according to the media group Reporters Without Borders.

China maintains a vast army of Internet censors who rapidly delete content deemed subversive from chat rooms, or block entire sites and blogs.

Forbidden content includes excessive criticism of the central government, promotion of Tibet or Taiwan independence, and discussion of the banned religious group Falun Gong. Read more...

EU to press China on rights

AFP: STRASBOURG - Mr De Gucht said the EU wants to take a 'forward-looking' approach and 'act as partners' with China on global challenges such as climate change, international stability and the need to maintain open markets and equal access to raw materials. But he made clear that human rights would also be addressed again with the communist-ruled country. 'There is a strong international expectation that China should live up to internationally-recognised standards in all fields of human rights,' Mr De Gucht said. Read more...

Urgent Appeal: Rescue Falun Gong Practitioner on the Verge of Death in Chinese Prison Camp


FDI: "Liu's life could very well depend on how quickly we act," says Falun Dafa Information Center executive director Levi Browde. "There have been many cases where the abuse of detainees stopped after their stories received international attention. We must act now to save this man."

Liu's family confronted Hu Shaobin, the head of the local district's 6-10 office (an extralegal agency leading the campaign against Falun Gong). Hu told them he'd rather let Liu die in prison than send him to a hospital because Liu was "so stubborn," referring to Liu's resistance to prison efforts to "transform" him.

"Transformation" refers to the process of coercing practitioners to abandon their Falun Gong-based beliefs and adopt the Communist Party's perspective on the practice. Authorities in locales across China have reported quotas issued by central Party authorities on the number of Falun Gong practitioners that must be "transformed" in their respective areas. Failure to meet these quotas often results in punishment, while police who meet or exceed quotas frequently receive promotions or other benefits.

Efforts to "transform" practitioners routinely involve torture, brainwashing techniques and other forms of abuse inflicted in custody. Detention facilities commonly refuse to release detained practitioners until they "transform." Each year, several practitioners die after being tortured to the verge of death and then denied release unless they submit to "transformation."

Read more...

Monday, September 20, 2010

7 arrested in China's latest tainted milk scandal

(AP) –BEIJING — A Chinese dairy company executive and six other people were arrested after authorities discovered 26 tons of milk powder tainted with a toxic chemical, the latest incident highlighting the country's enduring struggle with food safety, a report said Monday.

China has been shaken by a series of safety incidents, some of them fatal, involving products such as toxic toothpaste, faulty tires and tainted milk. The troubles underscore the challenges in regulating the multitude of small companies producing consumer goods and food products in China.

In 2008, more than 300,000 children were sickened and six others died after drinking infant formula tainted by melamine — which is high in nitrogen — that suppliers added to fool tests for protein content.

Read more...

15 Chinese jailed for airing facts of Falun Gong crackdown

First time in history that Chinese citizens had their say on communist state party owned CCTV

Today in History - 2002: A Chinese court sentences 15 followers of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement to prison for broadcasting protests of the government's crackdown on the movement.

FDIC: Preliminary reports from Heilongjiang Province say that Luo Gan (appointed by Jiang Zemin to oversee the state-ordered extermination of Falun Gong) has already visited Harbin City and given local authorities the order to arrest 6,000 practitioners by the end of June. Jailed convicts are reportedly being turned loose on the street to free up prison space for the anticipated internment of Falun Gong practitioners. Sources also report that pressure from Beijing is so intense that police have been encouraged to drop all other investigations and focus on Falun Gong alone.

Harbin City residents have been "advised" to turn off their televisions in the event of any "interruptions" in the cable signal.

These broadcasts are the latest avenue used by Chinese citizens in their rapidly evolving efforts to expose the lies of Jiang Zemin’s anti-Falun Gong propaganda as well as reveal the regime’s persecution of those who practice or are sympathetic to the spiritual practice.

Dr. Zhou concluded:

"Sooner or later those who carry out this persecution will realize that coercion can’t change people’s hearts. The appeal for Falun Gong in China is stronger than ever because Falun Gong is something that has touched people’s lives. You can’t stamp that out. You can’t crush the essence of the human spirit: Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance."

Read more...

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Developer Withdraws Anti-Censorship Software for Iranians

Epoch Times: Iranians, however, are not without alternatives, even if Haystack has to be mothballed. Software that proved pivotal in facilitating last year’s protests to take place, was created by the Global Internet Freedom Consortium (GIF) and includes FreeGate, UltraSurf, and GTunnel.


GIF, formed in 2006, has a mission to “build a pioneering online platform that breaks down the Great Firewalls blocking the free flow of information penetrating into, moving within, and originating from closed societies (e.g., China and Iran) via the Internet,” states the GIF website.

Different member organizations of the consortium have contributed a total of seven different software products to allow those living under totalitarian governments to punch through Internet censorship without being caught by the authorities.

A July 23, 2009, Wall Street Journal article stated, “GIF has an impressive history of aiding anti-authoritarian movements in real time. When Burmese monks and others rose up against their military rulers in August 2007, its programs saw a threefold increase in average daily hits from Burma.”

According to the GIF website, most consortium members are “Falun Gong practitioners exiled from China, and many were also Tiananmen Square students in 1989.” The GIF software packages were originally designed to keep Chinese citizens safe from the world’s largest totalitarian regime while they seek freedom on the Internet. Read more...

Beijing is always watching Falun Gong, Uyghurs, Tibetans and Taiwanese

Chinese-Canadians say spies have been monitoring and intimidating them

MacLean - Charlie Gillis: Those anxieties rose further in March when Jiyan Zhang, an accountant who worked at the embassy and the wife of a Chinese diplomat, told reporters that staff there had formed a special unit to collect information on groups like the Uyghurs, Tibetans and Falun Gong. Zhang, herself a practitioner of Falun Gong, also smuggled out a document suggesting that the embassy had mobilized a letter-writing campaign to the CRTC in hopes of scuttling the licence application of a Chinese-language TV station it considered anti-Communist. Her husband has been sent home to China in disgrace, but Zhang, who's now claimed refugee status, has kept up her offensive. "I just hope to show that the Chinese embassy was doing bad things," she told the Ottawa Citizen. "I wanted to reveal their lies."

Not everyone, however, is feeling so brave when it comes to tweaking Beijing. Several Chinese expatriates who last week recounted harrowing tales of threats and intimidation asked not to be identified in Maclean's for fear of reprisals against relatives they left behind. Others worried about their own safety -- though there are no known incidents of violence by Beijing's agents on Canadian soil. Nearly all agreed that Canadians need to be better informed about the espionage going on inside their own borders. Read more...

Related Article:

Chinese Regime’s Tactics to Influence Canadian Officials, Corroborating Fadden’s comments

Friday, September 17, 2010

Are Falun Gong cadavers showcased in Winnipeg BODIES this weekend?

Due to the fact that the cadavers featured in the exhibition are Chinese in origin, critics suspect that some or all of the bodies may be those of Chinese political prisoners or Falun Gong practitioners, who may have been subject to arrest and execution without due process, in order to be sold as cadavers.

cnews: WINNIPEG - A prominent Winnipeg human rights lawyer says a touring exhibit of dead bodies should be legally prohibited from putting cadavers on display in the city beginning next month.

David Matas is speaking out against Bodies ...The Exhibition, a renowned exhibit of preserved human remains that illustrates the workings and complexity of organs, tissues, muscles and other physiological parts.

He alleged Friday that the cadavers and partial remains used in the exhibit are the bodies of people executed in China, which he said "kills prisoners in the tens of thousands so they can sell their organs for transplant."

It takes very little imagination, he said, to understand that the communist country - whose human rights record has long been under fire around the world - could profit in other, similar ways.

"If they're killing prisoners for organs, the likelihood strikes me as pretty high that they're also killing people so they can put their bodies on display for money," Matas told QMI Agency. "It seems likely that these bodies are from the same source as the organs."

Even if the official government in China isn't directly involved in such sales in that country, he charged, it "knows about it, accepts it and tolerates it."

The five-year-old touring show is being brought to Winnipeg by the management of MTS Centre and will open Sept. 17 for an approximately 3 1/2-month run at a renovated, two-storey building. Promoters of Bodies ...The Exhibition say it has pulled in more than 15 million customers around the world since opening in the U.S. in 2005.

The exhibit's organizers have denied that the specimens are those of executed prisoners.

Matas, who is outspoken on human rights issues in China, is echoing some of the charges of many critics across North America who have slammed Bodies for various reasons - bio-ethics and religion also among them.

Along with the criticism, noted Matas, the exhibit has been hit hard in other ways. He points out that such commercial displays of cadavers are banned in Seattle, following a vote by that city's council last month.

"The city should do the same here," he said of Winnipeg. "And if they don't, absolutely, people here should boycott it."

A spokesman for Mayor Sam Katz did not reply to an e-mail seeking comment.

Asked for a more general perspective on Bodies, Matas didn't pull punches.

"I think the whole thing is ghoulish," he said. "But that's a separate issue."

Related: Disgraced Anatomy?

The Falun Gong T-Shirt That Scared Beijing

A young researcher finds he is not so welcome in China

Epoch Times: ...Also, I told them that I had kept my Falun Gong T-shirt in my close possession, and it was not visible to the public. The policemen who had searched me had to pull out the T-shirt and open it up to see that it related to Falun Gong.

The interrogator admitted that I had not done anything illegal. He told me that there would be no punishment and no charges against me. He then said that Falun Gong is illegal in China: “The American government may allow you to practice it; the Indian government may allow it, but in China, we don't allow you to practice it.”

In addition, the interrogator told me, “Do you know ... what you did could be constituted a threat to the Chinese government!”

How silly! My having a Falun Gong T-shirt constituted a threat to the Chinese state? Was the Chinese regime scared of international researchers bringing with them a T-shirt with the words “Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance” written on it? Did the regime believe my T-shirt was a threat to its existence...Read more

Torture in China continues

Means deemed necessary by the CCP to transform spiritual Falun Gong adherents

Asia.It: As China prepares its fifth periodic report to the Committee against Torture, Chinese Human Rights Defenders charges Beijing of formally banning violence in prisons, when in fact they continue and are getting worse. Read more...

Young Chinese mother kidnapped and sterilized to enforce one-child law

Asia.It: The woman disappeared on 15 July and was subjected to forced sterilization. Because of the operation she is still in hospital. Her mother, who reported her missing child, was arrested for 10 days. The damage of the one child law. Read more...

First conviction for human organ trafficking in Beijing

Spero News: The problem is so widespread that organs are offered on the internet, price included. Every year, thousands come from abroad for a transplant in China.

Human rights groups have accused Chinese authorities of allowing trafficking of organs taken from prisoners, for instance, members of Falun Gong. Some go so far as to charge Beijing of keeping thousands of death row prisoners alive until their organs are needed. Read more...

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Legal Rights Beijing Lawyer Wang Yajun Barred from Handling Falun Gong Case in Jilin Province: AI

Amnesty International: On the morning of September 10, Beijing lawyer Wang Yajun was forced to leave his hotel in Yitong Manchu Autonomous County, Siping City, Jilin Province, by three police officers and placed on a train back to Beijing. Wang had been in Jilin to represent a Falun Gong practitioner in a criminal case. On September 9, Wang was visited in his hotel by officials who claimed to represent the secretive government unit which handles Falun Gong cases, the "610 Office" of the Yitong County Political-Legal Committee. The officials told Wang that, according to Jilin Province and Siping City regulations, lawyers from outside the province were not permitted to handle "these types of cases." When Wang asked to be shown the regulations, the officials told him they were "top secret" and could not be shown to lawyers. (CHRD)[ix]

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Warning: Is BODIES Exhibit displaying Falun Gong at Galleria?


RFT Missouri: At issue is whether or not the bodies in BODIES could be executed prisoners from China, particularly persecuted Christians or members of Falun Gong. Premier admits that they got the cadavers from China, but cannot say whether or not the bodies were prisoners.

Alarmed Congressman Todd Akin earlier this summer fired off a letter to the owners of the Galleria ... So, the settlement?


Read more...

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Lawyer Barred from Representing Falun Gong Client by “6-10” Agents

Human Rights in China: Wang said, “The whole episode—from preventing me from performing my duties as a defense lawyer, to depriving me of my personal liberty and freedom to communicate, to threatening me not to take any cases in Jilin—is an attempt to create an atmosphere of terror and to send a warning signal to outside lawyers.”

“The forcible removal of a lawyer from a case that he is lawfully representing clearly violates procedural rights guaranteed by China’s Criminal Procedure Law and the rights of defense lawyers guaranteed by the Lawyers Law,” said Sharon Hom, Executive Director of HRIC. “We urge the Jilin authorities to investigate possible abuse of official power to deliberately deprive a Falun Gong defendant of due process and legal representation.” Read more...

Friday, September 10, 2010

CCP's Illegal Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong and others is Getting Worse: Expert

NTDTV: Watch Video: Illegal organ transplants are becoming more widespread in China, says Canadian human rights lawyer David Matas. Mr. Matas says a growing number of organs are being harvested from prisoners of conscience.

The Nobel Peace Prize nominee touched down in Melbourne, Australia this past week to speak at the 63rd annual UN conference on Advanced Global Health.

Matas travels the globe drawing attention to the contents of a book he co-authored called Bloody Harvest. Bloody Harvest details allegations that the Chinese communist regime is harvesting organs from prisoners of conscience, followers of the persecuted spiritual practice Falun Gong.

Matas believes forced organ harvesting in China is not only continuing, but increasing.

Voluntary organ donations are practically unheard of in China, and according to the World Health Organization, the vast majority of transplant organs come from executed prisoners.

More...

Falun Gong: defying the odds

New Statesman: talks about Falun Gong’s resistance and the complicity of the West

If this persecution is so severe, why is it so rarely in the news and why isn’t more being done about it?

Last month, I sat down with a journalist in a Taipei pub. ‘The media have a blackout on Falun Gong’, he said. ‘You mean Chinese or Western media’? I asked. ‘Both’.

Indeed, despite notable support from several politicians, journalists and NGOs, after being persecuted for 11 years Falun Gong practitioners still face an uphill battle in the West. Read more...

Thursday, September 09, 2010

Organ transplant tourists drive sinister trade, targets Falun Gong


ABC via Detroit Free Press: "'I know of one patient who was heading for a country overseas; told the unit that they would be unable to come in for dialysis tomorrow because they were shooting her donor tomorrow ... wherever there are rich people, they're preying on where there are poor people.' ...

'We had investigators phoning in to Chinese hospitals, asking the hospitals if they had organs of Falun Gong practitioners to sell and we get admissions throughout China, which we have on tape saying, 'Yes we do', or 'No we don't, but you can go to this hospital' ... the short waiting times mean somebody's being killed for their organs on demand when the patients arrive,'' David Matas said. Full Article

China's blind activist lawyer, Chen Guangcheng, released from prison

Christian Science Monitor: Chen was a leader of the first generation of Chinese civil rights activists, encouraged by signs that Prime Minister Wen Jiabao wanted to widen avenues of legal redress for injustice so as to dampen popular discontent.

The government changed tack, however, and in 2006 Chen was arrested. A prominent human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng was also jailed, as was another member of his firm Guo Feixiong, who had represented villagers alleging official corruption. Mr. Gao has now disappeared, and is believed to be in government hands. Mr. Guo remains in prison.

Sometimes the authorities simply close law practices that do not bow to their demands. The Beijing-based An Hui firm that refused to sack Tang Jitian, a lawyer who lost his license last April after representing members of the outlawed Falun Gong religious movement, failed its annual government check and is no longer allowed to operate. Read more...