Bush-Hu: Human rights focus of protests during US visit

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''I'll continue to discuss with President Hu the importance of respecting human rights and freedoms of the Chinese people," Bush said.

Words of wisdom...hardly! Bush has not once mentioned the plight of Falun Gong during Hu's visit which is currently the number one genocide in Communist China. Both leaders deserved to be humiliated by Wang Wenyi's bold message as they have not done anything to stop the seven-year persecution launched by Jiang Zemin. Since 1999 thousands, if not millions, of Falun Gong practitioners have died from torture in the concentration camps where they have their organs harvested first to line the pockets of the commies. When will the two most powerful men on the planet take action to stop this atrocity? Words are not enough!

China's Leader vows trade changes

by Farah Stockman

WASHINGTON (Boston Globe) 21 April 2006 -- In his first White House meeting with President Bush, President Hu Jintao of China pledged yesterday to address American grievances over the massive trade imbalance between the two countries and the valuation of China's currency.

But Hu offered few specifics on the promised reforms, and his message of economic friendship was marred by protesters denouncing human rights abuses in China, including allegations of harvesting organs from executed prisoners.

Speaking through a translator on the South Lawn of the White House after an elaborate military ceremony, Hu said the Chinese people are ''firmly committed to the path of peaceful development, and are making continuous progress in a modernization drive by carrying out the reform and opening-up program."

He said that China would ''continue to advance the reform" of the exchange rate for its currency, the yuan, and ''take positive steps in such areas as expanding market access."

Both are sore points for American businesses and US politicians, who say that China has kept an unfair advantage in the world market by setting an artificially low value for its currency, making its products cheaper than they should be.

US officials say the currency problem contributes to the record $202 billion trade deficit with China, another major US concern. US businesses contend that the deficit is exacerbated by the fact that US companies can't sell their products as freely in China as Chinese businesses can operating in the United States.

The visit provided no apparent breakthroughs on another major US policy goal: getting China to support more aggressive action against the nuclear programs of North Korea and Iran.

But Bush appeared upbeat, telling reporters during a photo opportunity with Hu in the Oval Office that he was heartened by Hu's pledges on the economy.

''He recognizes that a trade deficit with the United States, as substantial as it is, is unsustainable," Bush said. ''Market access is very important, and I appreciate your commitment to that, Mr. President."

Hu's four-day US visit, which included a dinner Tuesday at the home of Microsoft mogul Bill Gates in Seattle and a scheduled speech at Yale University today, has been dominated by economic issues.

But China's human rights record became a focus yesterday in the capital.

As Hu began speaking about expanding a ''win-win" economic friendship, a protester emerged from a pack of television cameramen and began screaming in Chinese that Hu's 'days were numbered." She also begged President Bush in English to stop the persecution of Falun Gong, a spiritual movement that is banned in China, before Secret Service agents led her away and charged her with disorderly conduct. She was later identified as Wang Wenyi, 47, a New York physician who writes for The Epoch Times, an English-language newspaper affiliated with Falun Gong.

White House officials said that Bush apologized in private for the disturbance.

A block from the White House, rival demonstrations by hundreds of people protested -- and welcomed -- the Chinese president. Falun Gong protesters yelled ''stop the killing" through megaphones, and then were drowned out by pro-China demonstrators playing anthems associated with the Chinese communist party.

Many protesters held up pictures of corpses that they said were dead Falun Gong practitioners whose organs had allegedly been harvested at labor camps in China. The allegation has been circulating since March, when Epoch Times printed an article that said an unnamed Chinese journalist had stumbled across information about the camps while interviewing doctors and nurses for an article about SARS.

China's foreign ministry spokesman has vigorously denied the report. State Department officials have toured the site of the alleged camp twice, but found no evidence of illicit organ harvesting there, the State Department said in a statement last week.

But the State Department has repeatedly raised concerns in its annual human rights reports about the imprisonment of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners and about allegations of organ harvesting in Chinese prisons.

On Wednesday, the House subcommittee on global human rights held a hearing on China during which activist and former labor camp prisoner Harry Wu testified that China's health ministry acknowledged at a World Health Organization meeting in November that 95 percent of its organ transplants use organs from executed prisoners.

''The current Chinese regime is one of the very worst violators of human rights in the entire world," Representative Chris Smith, a New Jersey Republican who chairs the subcommittee, said at the hearing. ''At the very least, US corporations should not be aiding and abetting that process."

Advocates working on behalf of Yang Jianli, a democracy activist and alumnus of Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, secured the signatures of 119 members of Congress for a letter urging Bush to raise Yang's 2002 arrest with Hu.

A White House spokesman said that Bush didn't mention Yang's case specifically during this visit, but that he has raised it in the past.

Bush, who has said that promoting democracy and human rights is a central goal of his presidency, walked a tightrope yesterday between mentioning the problem of human rights in China and still sending a message of friendship.

Bush invited Hu for a social lunch with the wives of the two leaders, but not a highly coveted state dinner. In his speech welcoming Hu, Bush described human rights as a ''disagreement" between the two countries.

''I'll continue to discuss with President Hu the importance of respecting human rights and freedoms of the Chinese people," Bush said. ''China has become successful because the Chinese people experience the freedom to buy and to sell and to produce, and China can grow even more successful by allowing the Chinese people the freedom to assemble, to speak freely, and to worship."

But activists and protesters hoped that the Bush administration would press the issue further.

''How far are we willing to sacrifice our values for economic advancement?" asked Jared Genser, a volunteer with the nonprofit prisoners rights organization, Freedom Now, that has worked to free Yang.

Canada 'concerned' about Chinese espionage

About the Bournonnais Touch--here's an update from the Globe and Mail: Ex-judge sentenced to six years for taking bribes

I t's worth reading the 'Bourbonnais Touch' (towards the end) from the Asian Pacific Post which shows exactly how the Chinese spy network operates in Canada. An awsome collection of articles on spies can be found on Prime Time Crime blog.

CTV.ca Apr. 14 2006 - The federal government is "concerned" that Chinese spies are stealing Canada's industrial and high-technology secrets, Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay told CTV.

"We're very concerned about economic espionage," MacKay said in an interview with CTV's Question Period, to be broadcast Sunday on CTV at 12 p.m. ET.

While in opposition, the Conservatives challenged the Liberal-led government to act on reports of Chinese espionage.

While acting as the Conservative foreign affairs critic, Stockwell Day called on former prime minister Paul Martin to address the issue during a visit to Beijing in January 2005. Day is now the public safety minister.

As the opposition leader, Harper himself pressured Martin to confront the Chinese government, quoting estimates by former Canadian Security Intelligence Service agent Michel Juneau-Katsuya on the number of spies operating in Canada.

Now, the new Conservative government appears ready to act.

"It is something we want to signal that we want to address, and to continue to raise with the Chinese at the appropriate time," MacKay said.

Intelligence files reportedly suggest that an estimated 1,000 Chinese agents and informants operate in Canada. Many of them are visiting students, scientists and business people, told to steal cutting-edge technology.

An example being touted as copied technology is China's Redberry -- an imitation of the Blackberry portable e-mail device, created by Waterloo, Ont.-based Research in Motion Ltd.

"The Blackberry RIM company is a perfect example of the type of technology and the economic impact that protecting that kind of trademark," said MacKay.

According to a 2003-2004 CSIS report to Parliament, foreign spies are trying to uncover ''Canada's scientific and technological developments, critical economic and information infrastructure, military and other classified information, putting at risk Canada's national security.''

However, CSIS does not specifically mention China in the report.

"It would appear, based on evidence and reporting, that there is a fair bit of activity here," MacKay said.

Juneau-Katsuya said the former Liberal government knew of the espionage, but were too afraid to act.

"We didn't want to piss off or annoy the Chinese," said Juneau-Katsuya, who headed the agency's Asian desk. "(They're) too much of an important market."

However, he argued that industrial espionage affects Canada's employment levels.

"For every $1 million that we lose in intellectual property or business, we lose about 1,000 jobs in Canada," he said.

The Chinese embassy in Ottawa has denied the spy claims.

Meanwhile, a recent decision to allow Chinese political dissident Lu Decheng, 43, to emigrate to Canada has already raised tensions between Beijing and Ottawa.

China imprisoned Lu for nine years after he defaced a portrait of Mao Zedong in Tiananmen Square with paint. He received an immigration visa from Canada earlier this month.

Russia has also attempted to steal Canadian technology, leading to the arrest of two operatives in 1996.

With a report by CTV's Ottawa bureau chief Robert Fife

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Local Members Of Spiritual Group Falun Gong Say They Are Being Harassed By Beijing's Secret Agents

Canadian govt bill aims to bloc foreign takeovers; seen aimed at China

Chinese spies infiltrate high-tech sector CSIS says foreign students, visiting scientists being used to steal Canada's best science, technology

The Bourbonnais Touch

Here's another entry for your collection of corrupt Immigration practices from the September 21, 2004 issue of the Asian Pacific Post: "A high ranking Canadian diplomat based in China has left his post suddenly [whereabouts unknown] after he was suspected of accepting bribes to help Chinese nationals enter Canada illegally. ...The highly sensitive and embarrassing cases are being kept under tight wraps in Ottawa which has refused to acknowledge the investigations into the passport thefts and the probe ... but sources told the Asian Pacific Post that the key suspect is a Canadian of Chinese origin who was originally posted to the Canadian Trade office in Shanghai in 1999 and later to the Immigration section of the Canadian embassy in Beijing in 2001. ... 'He is thought to have made well over a million dollars before he bolted a few days before his posting expired,' said a source. Preliminary investigations into the suspect's connections have linked him to at least one school specializing in teaching English to foreign students in Vancouver.

Maria Iadinardi of Immigration Canada, Kimberly Phillips of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Sgt. Gilles Deziel of the RCMP all regurgitated the same government public relations mantra when contacted by The Asian Pacific Post — We cannot confirm or deny any on-going investigation. 'It is the line that is commonly used when Ottawa doesn't want the public to know about a scandal,' said Brian McAdam, a former Foreign Service officer who blew the whistle on another immigration corruption scandal involving China and Hong Kong." " The Asian Pacific Post has learned that the ... 'suspect would scan visa applications that had been previously given negative recommendations by Immigration Program Assistants, contact the applicants and fix a price [$10,000 to $20,000] that would overturn the negative recommendation and result in the issuing of visas,' said the source. 'He would select the ones from among those recommended for refusal that looked the most promising from the squeeze aspect and have them come in for an interview at the Immigration Office.

He would conduct the interview with no witnesses of course and show the subject his file where it was recommended for refusal before making his pitch. The applicants would then jump when they arrived in Canada, some claiming refugee status…. It is a good way to make money and lack of oversight makes it fairly safe as long as you don't get greedy,' said the source. It is not known how many individuals, students and bogus Chinese business delegations the suspect helped into Canada but the source indicated that it was 'many dozens.' [The source suggested] Ottawa needs to do an audit of visas over the last five years in Beijing to determine the scope of the scandal. [What for? It's not like anyone ever answers for greasing their way in -- Ottawa has asked us hundreds of times to commiserate with "these victims of unscrupulous renegades"]

A source familiar with fake student visa applications in China said nearly 50 per cent of them have bogus information on them. There are an estimated 130,000 foreign students in Canada, with the bulk of them coming from China. 'There have been many memos to Ottawa about this scandal from last year where certain officers were turning a blind eye to high risk applicants in what were plain to see education scams,' said an Immigration Canada officer based in Ottawa. 'In many of the cases they lie about the amount of money they have but somehow either because of policy advice or some senior officer, they get the visas,' he said. What is most worrisome for officials is that some of those who have gained entry into Canada with the help of insiders at the Canadian embassy in Beijing are spies, terrorists and gangsters. Chinese spies posing as business delegates is an old ruse used by China's intelligence service. [A bit late to worry when we're negotiating to sell them Noranda] Brian McAdam, who worked as an Immigration Control officer in Hong Kong in the nineties was among the first to alert Ottawa to insiders with high security access helping unqualified applicants enter Canada. 'I am not surprised that this is still happening,' said McAdam, who was commended for his work on identifying Triad members and Chinese spies entering Canada and later ostracized when he questioned mandarins in Ottawa about their lack of action.

His memos and reports formed the basis for an investigation by the RCMP which eventually landed on the lap of Corporal Robert Read. The core allegations involved rich Chinese families trying to buy influence with members of the Canadian diplomatic corps, organized crime infiltration of immigration computers and the corrupt activities of an immigration consultant with strong connections who had brought in over 3,000 Chinese immigrants into Canada. The RCMP file languished for several years until Read took it over.

Frustrated at being stymied by bureaucrats and concerned that no one was addressing evidence of possible wrongdoing by mission employees, Read took his case to Vancouver Province news editor Fabian Dawson in August 1999. ... As a result of Read‘s expose, the RCMP fired him. ... Last year an RCMP oversight committee vindicated the officer for blowing the whistle [but] the RCMP has refused to reinstate Read." You're not the only one maddened by the alarming regularity of these stories. The Asian Pacific Post editorial of the same day: "Here we go again. ... Judging by the track record of Immigration Canada and the Department of Foreign Affairs, a witch hunt will probably be conducted to find out who leaked the information. That will likely be followed by a watered down blinkered investigation, probably by some outsider hired at great expense, which will conclude that the case is not as bad as it is made out to be. ... Hiding behind privacy legislation, the basic message to Canadians is that anything of this sort is none of your business."

Nine Communist Channels and Reports on CCP Foreign Propaganda Strategy

The China conduit: What Rogers Communications wants to beam straight into the homes of Chinese-Canadians: Raw, unfiltered, Chinese-state sanctioned TV

By Daphne Bramham

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UPDATE: CRTC: Say no to CCP-controlled hate channels

Please write to CRTC to express your views and oppose the Communist progaganda channels applying to broadcast on Canadian airwaves. Go here for details. For a reality check, view a few great reports exposing the extent of China’s propaganda strategy to fool the world. To access the reports, click on Home and then on State-run media.

Report on the CCP's Foreign Propaganda System, Ideology Infiltration and Spreading Hatred

Vancouver Sun: April 8, 2006 - by Daphne Bramham - The thought of the Chinese government beaming its message directly into the Canadian homes of Mandarin, Cantonese and Fujian speakers makes me just a wee bit queasy.

China has a dreadful record when it comes to human rights, free speech and freedom of religion. And while China is keen to have direct access to get its message to the Chinese diaspora around the world, its leaders have shown no interest in anyone else having direct access to their citizens either via the Internet or outside, uncensored broadcast media.

Yet Rogers Communications wants to be the conduit for nine digital channels owned and controlled by the Chinese government. Rogers wants the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to approve 24/7 broadcasts in Mandarin, Cantonese and Fujian with the programming coming directly from the state-run China International Television Corp. The programs would include everything -- children's shows, soap operas, documentaries, news.

Apparently, I'm not the only one with some concerns about it.

On March 31, the CRTC re-opened the public discussion on the Rogers' application. Its first call for public comments was made Dec. 16 and closed Jan. 16, which was less than ideal since Christmas holidays and the federal election consumed most people's time and attention then.

Close to 400 individuals and groups responded. Subsequent to that, the CRTC received requests from the China Insight Research Society, Canadians Against Propaganda and Burnaby-Douglas MP Bill Siksay to hold public hearings.

They raised concerns that Chinese-government controlled television promotes communism, attacks democracy, trivializes human rights, and uses abusive and hate-inciting language against minority groups such as the Falun Gong.

Canadians Against Propaganda has held two protests outside Rogers's Toronto headquarters.

The most recent was this week when it protested another Rogers request to license Phoenix InfoNews, which the group says is tied to and partly owned by the Chinese government.

In re-opening the public debate, the CRTC says it wants evidence to back those claims such as transcripts or tapes of programs aired on any of the nine services along with details such as when they was aired.

It wants the material all translated into French or English and it wants it by May 3. Because despite the concerns, the CRTC made it clear in its March 31 notice that "going forward, requests to add non-Canadian, general interest, third-language services to the digital lists will be generally approved."

But finding evidence that Chinese television is laced with propaganda, hatred and anti-democratic messages may be difficult since propaganda often is not as much what is said but what isn't, omissions rather than lies.

I want to add another caution about propaganda.

It would be great to think that all Canadians -- regardless of how long they have lived here -- can discern propaganda from news. But this is wildly optimistic.

Sorting out what is propaganda from news or information doesn't just require access to a wide variety of sources against which to compare information and views.

It requires a willingness to view, listen or read things you might not agree with.

Given that, Fox News may be as effective at spreading a specific point of view as China Television.

However, it's noteworthy that when the CRTC approved al-Jazeera, the Arabic-language news and public affairs service, it put special conditions on it. It required broadcasters not to distribute "any abusive comment" and to keep tapes of everything in case concerns are raised about abusive comments.

There are 853,745 Canadians whose mother tongue is a Chinese language, according to the 2001 census. More than half speak only their mother tongue at home. Another 28 per cent speak mostly Chinese at home.

Every year for the past three, close to 40,000 people from China, Taiwan and Hong Kong came to Canada as permanent residents.

Many struggle with language, a new country, a new culture. Some can't practise their chosen professions even though their professional qualifications are the reason they were accepted as immigrants. Many, no doubt, feel adrift.

So, given a choice, will they watch CBC, CTV, Fox, NBC or the channel that offers them programming in their mother tongue at the end of another trying day?

Rogers is betting many will choose a familiar language, familiar programs and news from back home even if it is the Chinese Central Committee's view of the world.

My concern isn't just about propaganda.

I'm concerned about enculturation and how immigrants learn our society's values and traditions so that they can become full, contributing citizens.

They won't share Canadian experiences whether it's hockey, Canadian Idol, documentaries, political debates or the CBC's mini-series on Tommy Douglas.

And instead of improving their fluency in at least one of Canada's official languages, they will be able to hunker down at home in their mother tongue.

Existing multicultural channels are required to have local and Canadian news as well as some "western" programs -- although I've never been quite clear how The Simpsons or reruns of Magnum PI fit the CRTC definition of multicultural programming.

But these nine digital channels won't have any of that. Viewers will hear and see few, if any, references to Canada, British Columbia or Vancouver. They will see news not about where they live, but where they are from.

And if a million or so immigrants are more attuned to what's happening in Beijing than in Ottawa, shouldn't we all be concerned about what kind of Canadian citizens they will be?

dbramham@png.canwest.com

Related Articles:

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Keep Chinese TV channels out of Canada: protesters

Protesters angered by Rogers' attempt to bring Chinese TV channels to Canada

CRTC yields on Chinese channels

Full speed on `Great Wall': Rogers

Beijing wants to beam government-controlled TV broadcasts into Canada

CBSC Talentvision re: a News Report (Mainland China Murders) (CBSC Decision 01/02-0416)

Beijing produces videos glorifying terrorist attacks on 'arrogant' US

Xinhua: the world’s biggest propaganda agency

James Town Foundation: How China’s Government is attempting to control Chinese media in America

Epoch Times: Exploiting the Media to Block the Flow of Information re: Falun Gong

Globe and Mail: CSIS warned Ottawa of Beijing media plot China tried to manipulate news outlets to muzzle criticism in Canada, agents say

Bush, Communist Olympics, and Amnesty International

Pres. Bush Must Hold China Accountable for Olympics-Related Human Rights Promise at Upcoming Summit, Amnesty International Says

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Here’s a quick take from the Strategy Page on Communist China and some human rights violations the CCP has shamelessly exported to the US and Canada. One can only imagine what it’s like in China or can we? One way of getting the message across is by staying out of the Olympics.

The governments ongoing campaign to crush the Falungong religious movement has extended to the United States , where several raids on pro-Falun gong writers, by thugs who appeared to be Chinese, have occurred. China is also engaged in ongoing jailings of Falungong members inside China. Many of the Falungong leaders are fleeing China, and keeping up a publicity campaign outside the country. Falungong is not a political operation, and was targetted mainly because the government does not tolerate nationwide organizations it cannot control. With Falungong, this is backfiring, and the government appears to be rising to the challenge by having overseas agents go after Falungong activists abroad. The government is also waging an extensive propaganda program, at home and abroad, against this new religion (which is a combination of Buddhism and several other beliefs.)...full report.

WASHINGTON (TMCnet) 13 April 2006-Amnesty International calls on President Bush to use his April 20 meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao to encourage China to honor its commitment to initiate human rights reform prior to the Olympics . During their 2001 Olympic bid, Chinese officials promised to improve human rights, specifying in particular that they would allow freedom of the press. Unfortunately, Chinese authorities have failed to live up to their pledge. In fact, Amnesty International believes the human rights situation in China is deteriorating.

"President Bush must use this opportunity to secure a timetable with specific benchmarks for human rights improvements in China prior to the Beijing Olympics," said Amnesty International USA Executive Director Dr. William F Schulz. "Failure to do so would send the Chinese government the message that the mistreatment of its citizens is acceptable to the United States."

In an April 11 letter to President Bush, the organization called for an end to executions of political prisoners, abolition of the "re-education through labor" detention system, and a reversal on the freedom of worship ban.

"At this rate, the only world record China is guaranteed to earn at the 2008 games will be for the world's champion of executions," said T. Kumar, Amnesty International USA Advocacy Director for Asia and the Pacific. "When Chinese athletes cross the finish line in the summer Games, let's hope their achievement won't be overshadowed by China's poor finish in the world's human rights rankings."

According to Amnesty International research, the Chinese government has evicted thousands of Chinese citizens from their homes in preparation for the upcoming Games. Torture by law enforcement personnel is endemic throughout the country and many prisoners are known to have died in custody. Tibetans, Uighurs, "unofficial" church members, Falun Gong practitioners, democracy activists, journalists and political dissidents remain frequent targets of abuse and terror. Other targeted groups include trade union organizers, advocates of reform and internet activists.

"The scale of China's human rights violations is startling," said T. Kumar. "In spite of promises to improve human rights, China continues to account for upwards of 80 percent of all executions documented in the world, tortures numerous people to death, and denies the right to freedom of conscience, expression, religion and association. As the Olympics approach, the eyes of the world will be on China's human rights record. Now is the time for Chinese authorities to match their actions to their words."

In July 2001, Liu Qi, former major of Beijing and current Beijing Chinese Communist Party Secretary, promised that by hosting the Games China's "social and economic development would move forward," as would "progress on human rights." The vow was echoed by numerous other Chinese officials who promised everything from increased freedom of the press to improvements in health and education.

To see a copy of the letter AI sent President Bush, contact Devon Haynie at 202-544-0200 x 302 or dhaynie@aiusa.org

Communist China to promote Buddhism...Hmmm!

China marks post-1949 first with Buddhist forum
By Benjamin Kang Lim

UPDATE: Warning--Chinese spies disguised as lamas...

TAIWAN GRAPPLES WITH CHINESE INFILTRATION;
SUBCONTRACTING NUCLEAR SECURITY TO THE PRC?

American Foreign Policy Council, Washington, DC

China Reform Monitor No. 623, April 19, 2006 - Chinese agents disguised as Tibetan Lamas have been entering Taiwan with forged documents after infiltrating Macau, India, and Singapore via Nepal. Taiwan's Central News Agency reports Taipei is raising concerns that PRC operatives disguised as lamas "lure influential political figures from the political and business sectors, posing a threat to national security." Taiwan is in the process of creating a process to weed out the imposers through document verification and Tibetan and Nepalese language examinations.

China hosts the World Buddhist Forum this week while the Chinese government is denying charges that the Falun Gong are being held in concentration camps. This is its first international religious meeting since the Communists swept to power more than five decades ago.

I don't suppose the 70+ million Buddhist Falun Gong in China are invited to the round table. Either way they're too busy (Hmmm!) having their organs harvested to profit the butchers of Beijing who use the Falun Gong as commodities. Shame on China for putting up this front while the CCP endlessly tortures the Falun Gong in the backroom.

Before we get to the article, please take a look at Communist China's history to get a feel for the situation via an excerpt from the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party:

On How the Chinese Communist Party Destroyed Traditional Culture

Part 6: “The CCP killed people like flies during the "suppression of counter-revolutionaries." [49] The political monks thereupon cooked up the justification that "killing the counter-revolutionaries is an even greater compassion." During the "War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea" (1950-1953) [50], monks were even sent directly to the front line to kill.

Take Christianity as another example. In 1950, Wu Yaozong [51] formed a "Three-Self" Church, which followed the principles of self-administration, self-support and self-propagation. He claimed that they would break away from "imperialism" and actively join the "War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea." A good friend of his was imprisoned for over 20 years for refusing to join the Three-Self and suffered all kinds of torture and humiliation. When he asked Wu Yaozong, "How do you regard the miracles Jesus performed?" Wu answered, "I have discarded all of them."

Not acknowledging Jesus' miracles equates to not acknowledging Jesus' heaven. How can one be counted as a Christian when one does not even recognize the heaven Jesus ascended to? However, as the founder of the "Three-Self" Church, Wu Yaozong became a member of the Political Consultative Conference standing committee. When he stepped into the Great Hall of the People [52], he must have completely forgotten Jesus' words. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and greatest commandment." (Matthew, 22:37-38) "Render therefore unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's." (Matthew, 22:21)

The CCP confiscated the temple property, forced monks and nuns to study Marxism-Leninism in order to brainwash them, and even forced them to labor. For instance, there was a 'Buddhist workshop' in Ningbo city, Zhejiang Province. Over 25,000 monks and nuns were once forced to work there. What is more absurd is that the CCP encouraged monks and nuns to get married so as to disintegrate Buddhism. For example, just before the March 8th Women's Day in 1951, the Women's Federation in Changsha city, Hunan Province ordered all nuns in the province to decide to get married in a few days. In addition, young and healthy monks were forced to join the army and were sent to the battlefield to serve as cannon fodder! [53]

Various religious groups in China have disintegrated under the CCP's violent suppression. The genuine elites of Buddhism and Taoism have been suppressed. Among those remaining, many returned to secular life, and many others were undisclosed Communist Party members who specialized in putting on kesa robes, [54] Taoist robes or pastor's long gowns to distort the Buddhist Scriptures, the Taoist Canon and the Holy Bible and to look for justification for the CCP's movements in these doctrines."

HANGZHOU, China (Reuters) April 12, 2006 - China hosts the World Buddhist Forum this week, its first international religious meeting since the Communists swept to power more than five decades ago.

Organizers timed the forum to coincide with the Christian festival of Easter, sources said, apparently to send a message of China's greater religious tolerance to church-going President Bush ahead of his summit with Chinese President Hu Jintao later this month.

Some 1,000 monks and Buddhist experts from 30 countries will gather in the scenic eastern city of Hangzhou for the forum which starts on Thursday and winds up in nearby Zhoushan on Sunday.

"The Communist Party has come a long way from uncompromising Marxist-Leninist-inspired atheism to a far more lenient and tolerant attitude toward religion," a Western diplomat said.

The theme of the forum -- "a harmonious world begins in the mind" -- mirrors Hu's campaign to build a "harmonious society" in the face of rising unrest at home.

"This is an unprecedented grand gathering in Chinese Buddhism's 2,000-year history," Ye Xiaowen, director of the State Bureau of Religious Affairs, wrote on the forum's Web site.

There also has been talk of China forging ties with the Vatican by 2008 and a possible warming toward Tibet's exiled god-king, the Dalai Lama. A Tibetan nun jailed for 15 years was allowed to seek medical treatment in the United States last month.

Such moves, however symbolic, may provide Hu with a list of concessions on religion with which to temper any U.S. criticism during his visit, analysts said. But critics dismissed the moves as a public relations exercise.

IDEOLOGICAL VACUUM

The Vatican estimates about 8 million Chinese Catholics worship in underground churches loyal to the Pope, compared with 5 million members of the state-controlled Catholic association.

China is generally less fearful of Buddhism, with its home-grown roots, than other religions, even though many Tibetan monks and nuns have been jailed for their loyalty to the Dalai Lama, whom Beijing accuses of pushing for independence.

Religious freedom is enshrined in China's constitution, though. The world's most populous nation has about 100 million Buddhists, some 20,000 temples and around 200,000 monks and nuns.

But during the chaotic 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, monasteries were closed, statues smashed, religious texts burned, and monks and nuns forced to return to secular life.

China has since sought to control but not stifle religion in a society where an ideological vacuum has spawned corruption and eroded ethics in the post-Mao era.

But in the face of rising unrest -- 87,000 public order disturbances last year -- China has no qualms about crushing any challenge to its rule, banning the Falun Gong spiritual movement as an evil cult in 1999 and jailing thousands of its adherents.

Two of the top lamas of Tibetan Buddhism will not attend the forum. The Dalai Lama has lived in exile in India since 1959 when he fled his Himalayan homeland after an abortive uprising. A youth backed by the Dalai Lama as the Karmapa Lama, the third-ranking monk, arrived in India from Tibet in 2000.

Qi Xiaofei, vice-president of the China Association for Religious and Cultural Exchanges, said the Dalai Lama was not a purely religious figure and accused him of "splitting the motherland and sabotaging ethnic unity."

The Dalai Lama would be an "unharmonious voice" if he attended the forum, Qi told a news conference, but added the government's desire for harmony did not mean it was unwilling to have exchanges with those who hold different views.

"We want dialogue, not confrontation," he added.

Death Camp Conspiracy: China Falun Gong needs urgent rescue

Urgent Announcement

For the latest media reports on this topic look here.

Live Organ Extraction Continues while the Evidence Is Transferred

China's organ supply questioned as transplants soar

Announcement: "Committee to Investigate the Facts" Announces the First Group of Facilities Targeted for Investigation and Evidence Collection

RFI: Interview with Reporter Who First Revealed the CCP's Harvesting Organs from Living Falun Gong Practitioners

The Integrated Committee to Investigate the Secret Sujiatun Concentration Camp (ICISC) urges the international community to help stop this new genocide in Communist China. For the latest reports on this situation visit the Epoch Times website. To view this story in Chinese go here.

Canadian Legislators Call for Probe into China Death Camp Reports

Abstract: Falun Gong practitioners in underground concentration camps, including Sujiatun Camp, have been secretly relocated and are subject to slaughter at any time. Meanwhile some hospitals in China have suddenly increased the number of transplant operations.

Clearwisdom.net: Since 2001, concentration camps similar to the one in Sujiatun have been set up in multiple provinces to detain large numbers of Falun Gong practitioners. In those camps, the authorities perform organ harvesting from live practitioners for sale and then cremate the remains to destroy the evidence. The atrocities were exposed to the international community in the beginning of March. Within three weeks, the underground concentration camp in Sujiatun was quickly relocated. Meanwhile, some hospitals and transplant centers in China are rushing to perform a large number of transplant operations: A slaughter to destroy witnesses/victims of the concentration camps is happening, and we urgently call upon the international community to initiate rescue programs to stop this new genocide.

To Whom This May Concern:

According to tips from Mainland China and investigations, the Chinese Communist regime hastily published the "Interim Regulation for Human Organ Transplant Practice" after the Sujiatun Concentration Camp was exposed. However, the regulation will not take effect until July 1, 2006, and thus we suspect the regime was allowing time to destroy all evidence of the crimes. All investigation has confirmed that hospitals and transplant centers in Heilongjiang, Hunan, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Yunnan, Anhui, Shan'xi and Xinjiang are operating overtime to perform transplant operations. Hospital staff members told undercover investigators that patients should come in quickly if he or she wants transplants as they can find matching organs in as short as one or two days and it will be difficult after this batch of organs are used up.

According to investigations by non-governmental organizations, the regime has set up concentration camps similar to the one in Sujiatun all over the country. The camps are suspected to specialize in detaining and secretly killing people who are steadfast in their belief in Falun Gong. The camps harvest organs from live Falun Gong practitioners for transplant. The sudden recent increase of organ supply in China is not an individual situation, but is widespread throughout the country. The Chinese Communist regime is suspected to destroy the bodily remains after organ harvesting to wipe out the evidence. We thus believe that the slaughter of Falun Gong practitioners detained in the camps is taking place at an unusually high rate!

After World War II, the international community deeply regretted that it failed to stop the holocaust and made a solemn "Never Again" promise. Sixty years later, history now gives the civilized world an opportunity to correct its past mistake. We hope that this generation can proudly say: We not only made a promise, but we kept our promise. We urgently request the U.S. government, the United Nations and governments of other countries as well as pertinent international organizations to take immediate action and activate all possible mechanisms to stop this new genocide in Mainland China. Every minute of delay will result in irremediable loss of innocent lives and will be a disgrace to the human race!

The Integrated Committee to Investigate the Secret Sujiatun Concentration Camp and the Facts of the Persecution of Falun Gong in China

April 5, 2006

Note: The Integrated Committee to Investigate the Secret Sujiatun Concentration Camp and the Facts of the Persecution of Falun Gong in China is a civil group originated by the Falun Dafa Association and Clearwisdom website after the underground concentration camp in Sujiatun was exposed. The organization was formally established on April 4, 2006. Its mission is to form an "Integrated Committee" with all related international organizations, state agencies and media in requesting to go to China to conduct an independent, direct, interference-free investigation to collect evidence, and completely search for the truth of the persecution of Falun Gong, including the Sujiatun Concentration Camp and other secret concentration camps located elsewhere to end this 7-year brutal persecution.

Spokesperson of the committee: Sherry Zhang, Tel. 1-415-845-5295

You can help...

DC Sujiatun Group needs your support particularly before Hu’s visit to the US.

You can help by making a few phone calls. The volume of calls is most important. The calls may be quick and to the point, for example:

You could say: "Please help stop the killing of Falun Gong practitioners in China. Their organs are harvested while they're alive" or ask the Congress to have a hearing and ask President Bush to meet with Falun Gong practitioners before Hu's visit. Thank you for your ongoing support!

President Bush: 202-456-1111, Fax: 202-456-2461

Secretary of State Rice: 202-647-5291, Fax: 202-647-2283

State Dept.'s China Desk: 202-647-6803

Senators' and Congresspersons’ Offices

Look here for their phone numbers.

Or/and send a FAX to:

Amnesty International USA - NY: Fax (212) 627-1451

Amnesty International USA - DC: Fax (202) 546-7142

Human Rights Watch - DC: Fax (202) 612-4333

Human Rights Watch - NY: Fax (212) 736-1300

Related Articles:

Exposure Prompts surge of killing in chinese hospitals, Falun Gong bodies carved up for organs

Taipei Times: Death Camp Conspiracy

Epoch Times: CCP Kills and Covers Up: Sudden Surge in Organ Transplants Reported

WOIPFG's Investigative Report on Sujiatun Organ Harvesting Death Camp

UN to investigate Sujiatun Organ Harvesting Death Camp for Falun Gong

San Francisco: Terror in China

Terror in Chinatown

by Roger Canfield

Enter the Red Dragon....

"I am pro-democracy," said businessman Allen Leung." We have freedom of expression."

San Francisco (The New American) 05 April 2006 - President Bush calls Communist China a "partner" in the war on terror, but some Chinese Americans are accusing China of bringing its own terror campaign to the USA.

President Bush calls China a "strategic partner" in the war on terror, but some Chinese Americans are accusing the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) of bringing its own terror campaign to the USA. They believe the CCP ordered the murder of Allen Ngai Leung, 56, an admired community leader in San Francisco. The day after Leung's murder, an anonymous caller to the worldwide Sound of Hope radio said, "You want to know who killed Allen Leung? Call Chinese Consulate and Chinese Chamber of Commerce." And then hung up.

Leung's murder "is spreading terror … [to] warn [those who] … dare to oppose the CCP," the Epoch Times reported on March 8. "We have now seen the long arm of the Communist regime infiltrate the United States itself.... It is …a frightening escalation of the Communists' plans to silence and intimidate the overseas Chinese people, in San Francisco, here, and around the world."

These accusations seem well founded. In mid-2005, Chen Yonglin, the 1^st secretary of the Chinese consulate-general in Sydney, Australia, defected and revealed his network of 1,000 spies and enforcers whose job it was to intimidate people of Chinese descent. And the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution urging the U.S. attorney general to investigate Chinese consular officials in these actions on U.S. soil.

PRC Flag Flies Over Chinatown

The CCP's presence in America is growing and becoming entrenched, especially in Chinatown, which historically has been very anti-communist.

Allen Leung fought the CCP's efforts to make inroads in Chinatown. A Chinese-language reporter told The New American, "Without Allen every flag in Chinatown will be red." A well-placed source, claiming to be close to Allen Leung, told TNA that the Chinese Consulate pays money to organizations to fly the communist flag as a show of support for Communist China and has paid perhaps a million dollars to major organizations to do so.

Our source said that the CCP desperately wanted control of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, also known as the Six Companies, to further its influence. The Six Companies is a single entity representing most of the highly influential traditional Chinese family fraternal organizations. Evidently, the CCP has been having success in its efforts. According to the Associated Press, in March 2004 Daniel Hom, the newly elected president of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, ditched his own organization's ceremony -- which uses the flags of the United States and the Republic of China -- to attend a pro-communist event. Hom and friends went to a restaurant, displayed flags of the People's Republic of China, and sang the national song of Mainland China with the consul general of the PRC, according to an AP report of June 30, 2004.

Leung was openly critical of Hom's actions.

A city official, insistently nameless, told the San Francisco Chronicle that the CCP was trying to unify all overseas Chinese under the PRC flag. "Five years ago you could see flags of the Republic of China.... Today there are many communist China flags. Communism is the newly rising political power."

Enter the Red Queen

The CCP is making gains in areas heavily settled by Chinese not only through large payoffs, but also with the aid of well-placed people. In the San Francisco area, that person is Rose Pak. The Los Angeles Times once described Rose Pak as the single most powerful person in San Francisco without benefit of having been elected to a public office. In that city, you don't have to say Rose Pak. Just say "Rose." Or just say "she." Everyone knows who you are talking about. A Chinese-language reporter told TNA, "In

Chinatown, Rose is treated like royalty. 'She' enjoys city-subsidized low-income housing" overlooking the Bay Bridge. And "when 'she' goes to a beauty salon she does not pay."

Rose Pak's visible means of income is being a general consultant to the Chinese Chamber of Commerce. She receives 12 percent commissions on entry fees of reportedly as much as one million dollars from participants in the annual Chinese New Year's Parade. As a formidable fundraiser and organizer, she helped elect at least two mayors of San Francisco -- Art Agnos and Willie Brown. In return, she expects political "favors." A political activist told TNA that both mayors helped Pak -- a Chinese national and former Columbia University student -- solve an immigration problem. A community leader told TNA, "Rose is so well connected to the police chief, district attorney, and city attorney" that she can get away with almost anything. A political activist said to TNA, "No one is above the law -- except Rose Pak in San Francisco."

Pak has a still darker side. "Rose Pak is known to be the spokeswoman of [the] Chinese Communist Party, as well as a special agent for the Chinese Communist Party," according to the Epoch Times. Backing that assertion, the Singtao Daily reported in 2001 that Chinese Premier Jiang Zemin once honored Pak for defeating a resolution by San Francisco Supervisor Chris Daly condemning China's persecution of the practitioners of Falun Gong, a Chinese system of exercise and meditation: "President Jiang was very happy … with the work done by the Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Rose Pak." Friends of Rose Pak told a Chinese-language reporter, "She came to San Francisco with a clear mission to go into Chinatown." And a Chinese-language reporter has recently discovered that circa 1970, while she was in Australia, Pak made frequent contact with none other than Li Peng, who between 1998 and 2003 ranked second in the Communist Party of China behind Jiang Zemin on the Politburo.

A series of setbacks for Pak may have signaled the demise of Allen Leung. Pak began hitting some roadblocks a couple years ago. San Francisco's ultra-liberal mayor, Gavin Newsom, who would seem to be a natural ally of Rose Pak, surprisingly replaced Pak's allies on city boards and commissions. This included appointing Allen Leung to the Chinatown Economic Development Group. Then the Falun Gong sued Pak and the city-funded Chinese Chamber of Commerce for not allowing the anti-communist Chinese group to participate in the Chinese New Year's Parade. By early 2006, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors took up a resolution condemning Communist China's persecution of Falun Gong. The Chinese Consulate, wishing to quash any negative commentary about Mainland China's human rights atrocities, warned that "passage of the resolution will affect Sino-US relations." Rose Pak ran full-page ads in the Chronicle publicly threatening the political careers of Supervisors Chris Daly and Fiona Ma. The resolution passed nine to two.

Within weeks, Allen Leung was brutally murdered. Killing Leung would make sense to the CCP because in Chinatown only a few stalwarts stand in the way of the CCP's goal of being the dominant influence in the community, and Leung was one of the anti-communist stalwarts. Several sources told TNA that Leung was systematically organizing opposition to the CCP just before his death. A Mr. Lin told the Epoch Times, "Allen Leung … was listed on the CCP's blacklist." Norman Yang, executive president of the Cross Strait Prosperity in Peace Association, told the Epoch Times, "His death … is a big blow to the anti-CCP … groups."

Leung did much to make himself a target. He reportedly raised "several million dollars" to form a new association of overseas Chinese to counter CCP influence operations. A Chinese-language reporter told TNA of planning to meet with Leung about his new organization, but Leung was killed before the meeting could take place.

As part of Leung's efforts to stop CCP influence in Chinatown, he fought to stop the CCP buyout of the Six Companies. He believed that the CCP planned the buyout so that it could put a stop to the annual October 10 celebration of the Republic of China's founder Dr. Sun Yat-Sen. A local resident told the Epoch Times, "The CCP bought off … community leaders … [and] … wanted to abolish the October tenth parade. It was Leung who … enabled the continuation of the parade. The CCP faction has always … wanted to get rid of him."

The Crime

In the late afternoon on February 27, Allen Leung unlocked the front door of his business, Wonkow International Enterprises, in Chinatown. A masked Asian man of about 30 entered, walked past Leung's wife, feigned a robbery, refused money, shot Leung four times in the head, and fled the scene. No witnesses are known to have come forward despite the fact that up to seven gunshots were fired in late afternoon and a masked suspect fled from the scene on a typically busy street that is crammed with as many as 40 businesses.

San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) spokeswoman Maria Oropeza told the World Journal, "It wasn't a random act.... This victim was an intended target.... This was not a robbery."

The most widely whispered theory, besides the belief that this was a CCP-ordered execution, is that Leung was the victim of criminal gang warfare. In 2005, Leung told the FBI his life was threatened after he refused to give $100,000 to two young members of the Hop Sing Tong. This is the story being promoted by the pro-CCP newspapers in Chinatown. An anonymous senior Chinese-American community leader told the Epoch Times, "At present, Singtao Daily, the China Press, and Ming Pao Daily … [blame] disputes between gangs. Do not believe it." Skepticism is warranted because evidence suggests that the CCP either owns outright or controls these newspapers. And the remaining independent Chinese newspapers are intimidated.

A well-placed source told TNA, "It had to be planned. The day after Allen's murder all three CCP-controlled papers told the same story." They claimed that Leung's murder was a dispute among the "black societies" and emphasized that Allen Leung had gone to the FBI for protection and ended up dead. "The message is you are not safe anywhere." The message of fear seems to be working. People are refusing to talk, or will talk only if they can remain anonymous. But it isn't for fear of gangs. It's fear of the Chinese Consulate.

TNA's well-placed source believes the CCP had hired an out-of-town contract killer to murder Allen Leung. Far fetched? Brian McAdam, a retired Canadian foreign service officer who is a specialist in Chinese organized crime organizations called Triads, told TNA, "Allied with Communist China's tyrannical … regime, the Triad's wealth and power have been helping China buy and spy" -- and kill. McAdam quoted Martin Booth, the author of two books on Triads, as saying: "In some diplomatic circles, it is being suggested that the Triads are … being asked to engage in 'wet work' [assassinations] on behalf of the Communist Chinese secret service." With the huge trade surplus China enjoys, they can certainly afford to hire out their dirty work.

This is hardly the first time that such claims have been made. Justin Yu, former president of the Chinese Language Journalists Association and a longtime reporter for the World Press, one of the largest Chinese-language newspapers in the United States, told The New American in 1997: "In the U.S. the Red Chinese government and their security forces use triad groups to …intimidate the Chinese community.... In San Francisco … the gangsters intimidate ethnic Chinese who are critical of the regime. They attack them on the streets, vandalize their property … to punish and silence them."

Our source said that he knew from discussions with Leung's friends and with police officers that the Chinese Consulate's "purpose is to make San Francisco a safe haven for high-level corrupt CCP officials escaping from Mainland China.... Allen Leung's murder is … preparation for establishing a more 'friendly' environment for a CCP power base in the United States."

Subsequent investigations may find a personal, business, or gang motive behind the killing of Allen Leung, but no matter who killed Leung, one thing is sure: the CCP is glad he's gone.

Roger Canfield, Ph.D., the author of China's Trojan Horses, is an associate editor for Military Magazine.

Related Articles:

Terror in Chinatown

Epoch Times: San Francisco Chinatown Leader's Death Reveals Complicated Political Situation

China e-Lobby: Why we must remember Allen Leung

Front Page Mag: Red Star Over San Francisco

SF Gate: Falun Gong dispute hangs over S.F. Chinese parade