Falun Gong is just a reminder of the oppressive regime of China

A brilliant piece by Brian Coleman.

New Statesman: 31 July 2007 - A recent Saturday morning, a short, colourful and dignified procession set off from outside the Chinese embassy in Portland Place. It was composed of practitioners and supporters of the Falun Gong movement, a slightly bizarre quasi-religious organisation that believes in meditation and bits of various Eastern religions. To me, as a mainstream Christian, it may be slightly odd but it is entirely harmless and believes in peace and goodwill and the general well-being of mankind. However, to the Communist Chinese regime it is a major threat to their very survival and needs to be ruthlessly put down in a manner worthy of Hitler’s approach to the "Jewish question".

Why? Because as with all totalitarian regimes the Chinese cannot tolerate any organisation they cannot control, hence their approach to the Roman Catholic Church over recent decades. However, Falun Gong does not have the Pope to defend it, and the wholesale persecution of Falun Gong has gone largely unreported in the West. Members have suffered spells in Labour Camps, murder and a particularly brutal Chinese practise; the forced removal of organs for transplant. Falun Gong worshippers are not unique in this respect: Buddhist monks, Tibetan Nationalists and political deviants of all kinds continue to suffer. Despite the rise of modern cities, China trails only Burma as the most repressive Asian regime.

Yet, in 2005 Her Majesty the Queen was forced to entertain President Hu Jintao to the full panoply of a State visit. Not since 1978 when President Ceausescu of Romania peed over the wallpaper of Buckingham Palace, has the leader of such a cruel and vicious regime been feted by the British establishment. The Mayor of London is not alone in spending hundreds of thousands of pounds opening offices in China and encouraging tourists to come to London, but he seems oblivious to the fact that only the “well behaved “ are allowed to leave China .The City Corporation fawns over the Peoples Republic to the extent that last November I found myself walking the length of the Guildhall Library between the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster and the Chinese Ambassador as we were announced at the Lord Mayor’s Banquet . The Communist functionary looked far better in white tie and tails than I did, and it rather reminded me of King George VI receiving Ribbentrop in the 1930s.

I once visited the Chinese Embassy to meet the ambassador, who at the time was a rather pleasant chap that had been educated at Ealing technical college in the 1950s and complained that from his first floor office window he could constantly see the permanent demonstration on the pavement opposite. “That,“ I told the Ambassador, “was the price of democracy.“ However from the sparsely furnished, heavily marbled and thick red carpeted (a la Kremlin 1950s) in the embassy, his excellency could see any irony.

Town Halls up and down the country are besieged by requests from Chinese towns for twinning arrangements and reciprocal visits, but as mayors serve the tea and cucumber sandwiches they do not realise that the polite man who calls himself “Vice Mayor” is usually the official responsible for sending dissidents off to the Chinese Gulag.

The Chinese regime craves recognition, and, sadly, British politicians, businessmen and university vice chancellors are prepared to afford that recognition in exchange for contracts that are helping the Chinese to destroy their environment, persecute their people and stifle democracy. I am in no doubt that the evil and corrupt regime that currently represses so many of our fellow human beings will fall and then perhaps its many sycophantic supporters in the UK will hang their heads in shame as low as they do now in respect to these Communist butchers.

U.S. Citizen Recounts His Kidnapping by Chinese Agents

by Huang Kaili

Clearwisdom.net via infowars - Tuesday July 31, 2007 - In mid-April 2007, Charles Cai, an American, went to China to visit his 80-year-old mother who lived in Changsha City, Hunan Province, and was hospitalized for a serous illness. During his stay, Mr. Cai was harassed and illegally kidnapped by agents from China's state security bureau, but now he has safely returned to the United States.

Charles Cai is a Falun Gong practitioner and a volunteer for New Tang Dynasty Television (NTDTV), a New York-based TV station dedicated to air objective views about mainland China. Charles said that while he was detained the communist agents asked him many questions about NTDTV, including the International Chinese Classical Dance Competition and its sponsorship. He pointed out that since NTDTV was founded, the Chinese communist agents have never stopped trying to interfere with and disrupt it. He was kidnapped in China probably because he works for the TV station, he said.

Chinese Communist Agents "Care" About NTDTV

Plum Blossom in Snow Wins Festival Justice's Prize

Swedish director moved to tell story of killings in China

SIGN OF SPRING: Director Elefteria Kalogritsa has produced a documentary on the journey of Jane Dai and her daughter Fadu and how Ms. Dai's husband was brutally killed for his belief in Falun Gong. (courtesy www.plumblossominsnow.com)

Epoch Times: July 15, 2007 - When Swedish director Elefteria Kalogritsa saw people moved to tears by a story of brutal suppression, she sold her summer home to tell it on film.

The film is already garnering recognition and awards. It recently received the Shen Zhou International Film Festival Justice Prize, one of only two films honored at the event.

When Ms. Kalogritsa attended the U.N.'s 2002 annual conference for human rights in Geneva, Falun Gong practitioner Jane Dai spoke at a press conference. "I am a person not easily moved but this day, at the press conference outside of the United Nations' building, I could not prevent the tears from rolling down my face. I looked around and noticed that I was not the only one," the filmmaker recalled.

The documentary tells the story of Ms. Dai and her daughter, Fadu Chen. The documentary made its U.S. debut at the Shen Zhou International Film Festival in Washington DC last week. The film has been screened at film festivals throughout Europe and also in Australia. Irish National Television previously broadcast it during prime time.

Ms. Dai says that her husband Chen Chengyong was tortured to death because he refused to give up the practice of Falun Gong. The director knew that many human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, have documented the persecution of Falun Gong in China, but listening to a personal experience was something more powerful for the filmmaker.

The film follows Ms. Dai and little Fadu on their world journey. Ms. Dai tells how she traveled everywhere to find the meaning of life before starting the practice of Falun Gong, and about finding the book Zhuan Falun. "What I had searched for all my life was in that book."

Ms. Dai met her husband at a Falun Gong study group. She describes how she changed from thinking only of herself to following the principles of Truth, Compassion, and Tolerance.

Before Chinese authorities ordered the suppression of the practice, Ms. Dai recalled how there was often more than 1000 people practicing in the park on a given day.

As the practice spread—not only in every part of Chinese society, but in more than 60 countries around the world—the regime felt a growing threat from a peaceful practice that outnumbered the communist party.

In July 1999 the regime banned the practice, tens of thousands were arrested and homes ransacked. Millions of copies of the book Zhuan Falun were destroyed and the entire power of the state bore down on law-abiding citizens who practiced Falun Gong.

The police arrested Chengyong Chen while he delivered a letter to the appeals center in China. No one could contact him in person or via telephone.

Ms. Dai says that the arrested Falun Gong practitioners are treated worse than convicted criminals in jail. "In China inmates can see their families, but not Falun Gong practitioners if they don't give up their beliefs."

Jail police beat her husband and reduced sentences for criminal inmates who also beat him. He later died from unknown causes and his body was dumped in a hut.

Jane Dai and Fadu, now seven, feel they must tell the world about their tragedy. "So I have to carry my baby, and go around the world to tell all the people that Falun Dafa is good."

Drawing courage from her husband's death, Ms. Dai will not stop speaking out against a powerful opponent. "We believe that power and money cannot change people's hearts. Torture and killing cannot change people's hearts."

The director says the film's title reminds viewers that like plum blossoms that bloom in winter and herald spring, "the persecution will not remain, the change of seasons is already passing by, and despite the winter cold, spring is on its way."

Ms. Dai and her daughter appear to be very resilient plum blossoms, and bloom wherever they take their message. One comes away with the thought that perhaps never before and never again will the world witness how the torture and killing of millions was stopped in its tracks by truthfulness, compassion and tolerance.

Plum Blossom in Snow, directed and produced by Elefteria Kalogritsa, Cinora Film 2005, is being shown at select theaters and film festivals throughout Europe and North America. For more information, go to www.plumblossominsnow.com.

Pasadena Rose Parade

The saga continues - this issue is gaining momentum with Human Rights Watch and Reporters without Borders joining forces with the Falun Gong and the Free Tibet org. Look here for more reports. Your support is needed here.

China's deadly scheme to harvest organs

One big omission here--is the fact that Falun Gong prisoners of conscience are still alive while they remove the organs and killed during the process. (ref. Bloody Harest) The fresher the organ, the more money they make. Pretty sad eh? If this practice happened in Israel, it would have been stopped a long time ago!

Patients from around the world are buying organs sliced from the bodies of executed prisoners

G&M: Wednesday, July 18, 2007 – Page A23 by LEIGH TURNER
William Dawson Scholar in the Biomedical Ethics Unit at McGill University

In China, executed prisoners provide the main source of organs for transplantation. Physicians take blood samples from the prisoners and match tissue types to transplant recipients. Once they are killed, their organs are transplanted into patients wealthy enough to afford transplantation at Chinese hospitals.

Patients from countries such as Canada, Australia, Israel, the United Kingdom and the United States travel to China and purchase organ transplants through brokers. At least 12 companies - of which two are in Canada - use the Internet to market transplants in China. Their websites assure prospective customers that organs are available within days or weeks. China's Health Ministry is trying to regulate the sale of organs to foreign patients, but brokers continue to sell transplants at Chinese hospitals.

China's long-standing policy of denying accusations that organs are taken from executed prisoners, its practice of concealing the number of citizens executed every year and the secrecy surrounding China's judicial system, prison system and military hospitals have made it difficult to know how to respond to reports that Chinese physicians use executed prisoners as their main supply of organs. Earlier this year, however, Jiefu Huang, China's vice-minister of health, acknowledged that most cadaveric organs in China are obtained from executed prisoners.

Chinese transplant physicians are estimated to have performed more than 60,000 organ transplants. These transplants were performed in a country with no legislation establishing brain-death criteria for determination of death, no organized national system of organ donation by informed, consenting donors, and widespread cultural and religious norms that make the concept of organ donation alien to many individuals.

The canard that prisoners in China provide informed, voluntary consent to organ donation must be dismissed. Imprisoned individuals can easily be intimidated with violence or hints of repercussions for family members, or reassured with false promises. Physicians, police officers, prison officials and prisoners who have left China dismiss the claim that informed consent is sought from prisoners. Huang Peng, a former prison official at Shenyang No. 2 Prison in the province of Liaoning, says: "There is no family willing to have their loved ones' organs taken. And there is no such thing as a prisoner who volunteers." Gao Pei Qi, a former member of China's Public Security Bureau, says: "Basically, they look at the prisoner's body as whatever they want it to be. They would take the prisoner's skin, if necessary."

Family members of executed prisoners say they are not asked for permission to have organs removed from their relatives. To the contrary, numerous reports reveal the outrage families experience when they discover that organs were taken from their executed kin.

China's practice of taking organs from prisoners creates powerful economic incentives to sentence and execute individuals. It is possible that many prisoners are executed precisely because of the financial benefits that flow to court officials, police officers, prison guards, doctors and hospital administrators as a result of commercial organ transplantation.

Now that we know that executed prisoners provide China's primary source of transplantation, we must respond to this violation of human rights and principles of medical ethics. Given the number of organs taken from executed prisoners, most research papers by transplant physicians in China must draw on data obtained through research dependent on organs taken from prisoners. Abstracts, papers and posters prepared by transplant doctors in China must be rejected by medical journals and scientific conferences because of their use of data obtained through human-rights violations. Routine involvement of Chinese physicians in taking organs from executed prisoners means that physicians and researchers from China should not have access to transplant training programs in other countries. An international ban on training Chinese physicians in transplant techniques should continue until China renounces taking organs from executed prisoners and ensures that all transplant programs meet basic international standards.

China's practice of killing prisoners and taking their organs raises serious questions about why the Chinese Medical Association is permitted to retain membership in the World Medical Association. The WMA unreservedly condemns China's practice of taking organs from executed prisoners. And yet, the Chinese Medical Association remains a member. This contradiction needs to be addressed, and the Chinese Medical Association's membership should be revoked.

The transformation of China's prison system, judicial system and laws governing organ transplantation must be led by social reformers within the country. Chinese doctors, lawyers, judges and hospital administrators all need to contribute to separating hospitals from execution sites and prisons and developing organ transplantation programs meeting international human-rights standards. Other countries must enact new legislation or enforce existing laws prohibiting the buying and selling of organs. International organ brokers must be prosecuted and their business operations disrupted. Legislators need to confront the emergence of "transplant tourism."

Governments, human-rights organizations and medical societies must condemn China's use of executed prisoners as a ready supply of transplantable human organs. We must shift from debating whether China takes organs from executed prisoners to taking practical action now that we know with certainty that executed prisoners there provide a ready supply of organs for commercial transplantation.

Talking to a Great Wall - MacLeans interviews Chen Yonglin

Canada's human rights dialogue with China has yielded nothing

CHARLIE GILLIS | July 9, 2007 |

Maclean's - Exactly when it became impossible for Ottawa and other Western governments to pretend their bilateral talks with China on human rights were anything more than a charade is difficult to pinpoint. But a good case can be made for June 4, 2005, the day a soft-spoken diplomat from the Chinese consulate general in Sydney hid away his wife and daughter, eluded Beijing's ever-vigilant minders and threw himself at the mercy of the government of Australia.

Chen Yonglin's defection from China was a moment of triumph -- not to mention high atmospherics -- for pro-democracy partisans living outside the country. That afternoon in Sydney, the bookish 37-year-old took the stage at a rally commemorating the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, and renounced his allegiance to a government that had provided him an enviable living. For too long, he told the rapturous crowd in Martin Place, Beijing has ruled its people at the end of a gun.

Neither Australia nor Canada nor 10 other democracies trying to make nice with China were inclined to celebrate, though. In the ensuing days, this affable, mid-ranking official produced a series of documents and anecdotes illuminating the two-faced nature of Chinese diplomacy over the past eight years, and by extension, the embarrassing depth of Western credulity. Even as Canberra, Washington, Ottawa and London were earnestly sending officials to closed-door meetings on human rights that began in 1997, Chen and his colleagues were stepping up spying and harassment activities against expatriates belonging to Falun Gong, the free-Tibet movement and pro-democracy groups. The idea, Chen told Maclean's in a recent interview, was to make life miserable for the dissidents' relatives back home. As for the bilateral dialogue: "We all knew it was meaningless. Everyone at the consulate general knew the talks were just a way to avoid international criticism. The notion that China would play a constructive role in international affairs was very deceptive."

Chen isn't the first to suggest China has spent the last decade playing Western governments for fools. His revelations count among a series from academics, journalists and other Chinese asylum-seekers indicating the so-called bilateral dialogues -- in which individual countries air their human rights concerns to Chinese officials behind closed doors -- have led to little in the way of reform. Until recently, it's been easy enough for Western governments to slough off these reports as anecdotal bumps on a longer road to reform.

But with the 10th anniversary of the beginning of the talks fast approaching, there are signs that the days of cordial conversation may be over -- at least on Canada's side. Shortly before Parliament rose for the summer, an all-party Commons subcommittee heard numerous witnesses variously condemn the talks as an unproductive, naive and convenient cover for further Chinese abuses. Liberal MPs have blocked release of the subcommittee's report, arguing it will poison relations between the two countries. But a copy obtained by Maclean's shows that the panel affirms in plain language what NGOs and Chinese dissidents have been saying all along. "The subcommittee concludes that the existing bilateral human rights dialogue with China has not met its objectives," it says. "Perhaps, then, it is time for a more fundamental rethinking of the purpose of government-to-government meetings and of their role in a broader Canadian policy of engaging China on human rights."

This prescription is unlikely to please Beijing. The report recommends suspending the dialogue unless the Chinese agree to wholesale reforms -- opening the meetings to NGOs, establishing yardsticks for success; setting down a system of evaluating progress. But the real weight of the report may lie in its domestic implications. If, as expected, the Harper government adopts the recommendations as policy, it will cap a remarkable role reversal between Canada's leading parties when it comes to human rights. For years, the Liberals had been the party most closely associated with the issue, a legacy left over from the days of Pierre Trudeau and the introduction of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Now the Tories are feasting on the issue of human rights, leaving the Grits in the absurd position of urging restraint to avoid offending the offenders. So what changed?

For starters, the Liberals did. Through the mid-1990s, the governments of Jean Chrétien had signed onto a series of resolutions at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights condemning China's rights record. But by 1997 -- due in part to vigorous lobbying on the part of the Chinese -- this multilateral shaming was starting to lose support. That year, to the dismay of NGOs, Canada followed the lead of other Western countries and switched course, agreeing to take their complaints against China behind closed doors in government-to-government discussions. It was left to foreign minister Lloyd Axworthy, one of the Liberals' most respected civil libertarians, to justify what many activists regarded as a sop to big companies hoping to trade with an emerging economic colossus. "We concluded that Canada could have a greater influence on the state of human rights in China," Axworthy said at the time, "by pursuing and intensifying our promising bilateral measures."

His faintly voiced hope never came to pass, however, and neither did the business community's dreams of economic nirvana. After the first couple of years of bilateral meetings, Canadian officials attending the sessions found themselves across the table from progressively more junior officials who lacked a mandate for domestic reform. "It became a bit of a joke, really," said one former diplomat who attended two of the meetings. "They would listen, but you had no sense that anything was going to change." Canadian products, meanwhile, actually shrank as a proportion of Chinese imports during this period, while Beijing continued its rights abuses. Each year, Amnesty International and other NGOs cited the Communist government for overuse of the death penalty, persecution of religious minorities or smothering free expression. "I think time has told the story," says Carole Samdup, coordinator of rights programs with the Montreal-based group Rights & Democracy. "I'd say we have less influence on China than we did in the past."

While all this was going on, Canada's political right was getting itself and its platform together -- including a newly minted China policy. As recently as 1999, then-Reform party leader Preston Manning had dismissed the plight of Tibetans as an "internal Chinese matter," preferring to focus on trade when asked about relations with Beijing. But some within Reform wanted a tougher stance. And with the merger of the Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservatives in October 2003, they got their way. After that, said one insider who asked not to be named because he was speaking without authorization from the party, senior Tories began to speak of a "principled" policy on human rights. "It's a fairly recent development," the official said. "There are differences of opinion within the party, but it's more a question of emphasis. The issues of trade and human rights aren't always in tension, but there is that dynamic."

The rights hawks, as such, are mainly led by Jason Kenney, the secretary of state for multiculturalism, whose views on China were influenced by pro-democracy activists he met in school and university. Kenney declined to comment this week, saying it would be inappropriate given his position as chair of the human rights subcommittee. But he made his convictions clear back in January 2005 when, as part of a trade mission to Beijing, he paid a visit to the family of Zhao Ziyang -- a deceased Communist party head who was purged for sympathizing with the pro-democracy demonstrators at Tiananmen Square. Then-prime minister Paul Martin denounced Kenney's gesture as reckless showboating, but the MP was unfazed. He later said he'd gotten permission for the visit from Tory leader Stephen Harper, who as Prime Minister would put human rights in China at the centre of his foreign policy platform.

Wherever the new ideas originated, the Conservatives quickly put them to work. Four months after being elected with a minority, the new government accused China of industrial espionage, citing its development of the Redberry, an equivalent to the BlackBerry sold by Waterloo, Ont.-based Research in Motion. Then, last fall, Harper took on the case of Huseyin Celil, a Uyghur-Canadian Muslim who was arrested during a family visit to Uzbekistan and deported to China to face dubious charges of terrorism. The Chinese had been holding Celil for more than a year without consular access, refusing to recognize his Canadian passport even after the Prime Minister got involved. In April, following a closed trial, a Chinese court in Beijing sentenced Celil to life in prison.

Harper seemed to take the case personally, raising it with Chinese President Hu Jintao during an economic conference in Vietnam in November and tartly telling reporters: "I don't think Canadians want us to sell out to the almighty dollar." For that, he's won laurels from human rights NGOs, and from Chinese expatriate groups who have previously identified themselves as Liberals. "I've been very impressed," says Sheng Xue, Canadian chair of the Federation for a Democratic China. "I think a lot of Chinese have identified themselves as Liberals just because of the meaning of the word -- freedom meant so much to us. But Liberal policy on rights over the past 13 years was confusing. For some of the Conservatives, I think freedom is truly their ideal."

How tightly a government can cling to ideals, though, is another question. In recent months, there has been pressure from the Bay Street side of the Conservative party to soften its rhetoric -- or at least create a two-track message, in which trade and human rights enjoy equal emphasis. Earlier this week, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced plans for a trip to China to discuss trade issues, while Lu Shumin, China's ambassador to Canada, told reporters in Ottawa recently that China is eager to resume the bilateral dialogue "when Canada is ready." Shumin didn't say whether Beijing would consider overhauling the process, and requests to the Chinese embassy for an interview were not returned. But at a time when fully 25 per cent of Canadians consider China the most important country to their interests, refusing to resume talks could easily be cast as stubborn obstructionism.

If the rights advocates within the party have any advantage, it's China's astounding ability to generate toxic publicity. Earlier this month, Charles Burton, a Brock University professor who compiled a report for the Commons subcommittee, stunned observers by reporting that Chinese foreign affairs officials sought "goodwill" payments from Canada in exchange for discussing particularly sensitive human rights topics. During interviews conducted by Burton in 2005, the diplomats suggested a $60,000 donation for impoverished counties in Yunnan, he said in his report; alternatively, Ottawa could provide funding for Chinese diplomats to obtain graduate degrees at Canadian universities.

That revelation came just as Chen Yonglin, the defector, began a nine-day tour through Canada, during which he revealed documents he says show that this country's leading Chinese Canadian lobby group, the National Congress of Chinese Canadians, was essentially an arm of the Chinese embassy. Chen said the congress counts among numerous organizations created in countries that responded to the Tiananmen massacre by freezing diplomatic relations with China. They were conceived, he said, as an alternate means of parlaying Beijing's message to foreign governments, but have since morphed into advocacy groups for the Communist regime. The NCCC has strenuously denied the claim, accusing Chen of "making untruths, creating hatred and damaging the peace of Canada's Chinese community."

Whether you believe the congress's protestations or not, Chen's is one more allegation to buoy the Sino-skeptics -- Tories and non-Tories who would be happy to see the dialogues consigned to permanent limbo. For years Canadian decision-makers have asked themselves whether they could afford to keep scolding a country whose economy already dwarfs our own. With little in the way of evidence to suggest China plans to use its newfound economic clout responsibly -- and the days of Beijing answering to anyone quickly dwindling -- the better question may be whether we can afford not to.

Chinese Regime Looks to Student-Spies to Push Agenda in Canada

Former CSIS agent warns students of consequences of spying

Excellent piece by Caylan Ford and Jason Loftus. All universities in the country should be made aware of this Communist plotting and be on their guard.

Epoch Times - July 19, 2007

Chinese diplomat Wang Pengfei, an official in the Chinese embassy's education department, was sent packing in October after he was caught spying. A source told The Epoch Times he was declared persona non grata.(File photo/The Epoch Times)

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Lingdi Zhang said she felt a chill on Sept. 26, 2005, when she opened her email inbox to find a message from an officer of a university club she belonged to.

"According to reports from some other students and the investigation done by the association's cadre, you are still a Falun Gong practitioner," read the email, warning her to "watch out" for herself.

It was a sobering moment. Countless Falun Gong adherents in mainland China had received similar threats, and hundreds—if not thousands—went on to face torture and brainwashing after being turned in by fellow students and teachers.

But Lingdi Zhang does not live in China. The then-computer science student was studying at the University of Ottawa. The email came from Chris Xu, the vice-chair of the school's Chinese Student and Scholar Association (CSSA), who added, "The University of Ottawa Chinese Students' Association is under the direct leadership of the Education Office at the Chinese embassy in Canada."

And it's not the only one. In an article appearing in Chinese Scholars Abroad , a periodical targeting overseas Chinese students, a Chinese embassy official wrote that the embassy's education department was responsible for overseeing the Chinese students' associations in 22 universities and colleges in six Canadian provinces. Associations in other parts of the country are purportedly watched over by Chinese consulates in those regions.

For the most part, the Chinese missions' involvement in the associations appears benign enough: providing funds or tickets to student groups for special events, writing reference letters for students, awarding scholarships, and so on.

But it comes with some strings; namely, the associations are commonly called upon to act at Beijing's behest to extend policies of political repression against groups like Falun Gong – a meditation practice persecuted in China. Failure to toe the party's line, even in Canada, can have severe repercussions for Chinese students.

In April 2006, an email sent from a "Li Qin," who claimed to be a special agent for the Chinese public security bureau, warned members of the Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA) at the University of Calgary not to attend a weekly movie show organized by the university's Friends of Falun Gong club.

"Please do not attend this activity," Li warned. "Otherwise your name and photo will be submitted to Central Government."

The email scared many Chinese students away, says Jenny Yang, then-president of the University of Calgary Friends of Falun Gong Club. "A lot of my Chinese friends received the email and said they were afraid to continue coming."

Such incidents are not surprising to David Harris, the former director of strategic planning at Canada's spy agency, CSIS, but they are disturbing.

"This constitutes a profound interference in Canadian academic life–it is undesirable in the extreme," says Harris, who notes that Canadian legislation seriously restricts even CSIS's operation on university campuses.

"If you don't want your own [security agents there], you certainly don't want an influence there that is essentially alien and hostile to free expression and discourse."

The threats against University of Calgary students and U of Ottawa's Lingdi Zhang mirror a recent incident at Columbia University in New York. There, the school's chapter of the CSSA posted statements on their website advocating that Falun Gong practitioners and presumably anyone else who dared "offend" the Chinese communists be "executed."

The club's constitution notes that it has been "reviewed" by the consulate general in New York. Until a few weeks ago, its advisory board had only two members, both officials from the Chinese consulate.

Harris does not doubt that behind such statements is influence from the Chinese regime.

"Chinese missions abroad in the West try to treat Chinese student groups as marionettes. In some cases, they attempt to persuade, guide and shape the policies and activities of Chinese student groups. This is in line with many other invasive initiatives," he says. "The purpose of their interference is to spy and to influence illicitly."

Chen Yonglin, who served as first secretary of the Chinese consulate in Sydney before defecting in 2005, says nearly all the overseas Chinese students associations have been established by the education department in Chinese missions in the host countries. Along with keeping a watchful eye on ethnically Chinese students, Chen says one of the primary objectives of the associations is to lobby western governments and institutions to support the Communist Party's policies, such as its repression of groups like Tibetans and Falun Gong.

"Often, it is not convenient for the Chinese mission to do certain things. So to use student organizations, with a neutral name, is more effective," explains Chen. "Such groups are in fact controlled by the Chinese mission and are an extension of the Chinese communist regime overseas."

New Tang Dynasty Television's application for a license to broadcast in Canada was a case in point. A leaked Chinese embassy document obtained by The Epoch Times revealed the embassy's intention to derail the network's application. NTDTV has earned a reputation for reporting prominently on the Chinese regime's human rights abuses. The embassy report, dated March 17, 2005, was penned by the embassy's culture section head, Chen Pengshan, and signed off by then-ambassador Lu Sumin. It discussed rallying Chinese student groups, among others, to write to Canada's media watchdog, CRTC, to oppose the application.

Not long after that, the president of the Chinese Students Association at the University of Ottawa wrote to CRTC urging the watchdog "not to allow the channel to be listed and further distributed to the local communities." Nearly identical letters were sent from other groups close to the Chinese regime, including the National Congress of Chinese Canadians, profiled recently in another Epoch Times report.

In 2004, the University of Toronto Chinese Students and Scholars Association (UTCSSA) wrote to the City of Toronto council urging them not to pass a motion that would have recognized a Falun Gong Day in the city, again after the Chinese consulate had sent a similar letter.

Evidence of the ties between the Chinese missions and student groups, many of which are called Chinese Students and Scholar Associations (CSSA), is often not hard to find.

Reached last week, Michael Huang, a prominent former leader of the CSSA at the University of Toronto and an organizer of pro-Beijing activities there, did not deny that the student groups receive embassy and consulate funding when asked. "You should talk to the current heads of the student organizations," said Huang, who is now an advisor in the office of Ontario Citizenship and Immigration Minister Mike Colle.

But many Chinese student groups are more candid.

The first sentence in the introduction of Lakehead University's CSSA on its website says: "LUCSSA is the only Chinese students association that is recognized by the Chinese embassy."

In its recruitment ad, the CSSA at University of Waterloo openly states it operates under the supervision of the Chinese embassy in Canada.

The University of Toronto's CSSA states on its website that it receives funding from the Chinese consulate in Toronto. The equivalent organization at the University of Western Ontario expresses repeated thanks on its website to the Chinese embassy for the provision of funds.

At Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, the CSSA lists the local Chinese consulate as its main sponsor and lists the primary task of the association's president as soliciting funds from the consulate.

According to Chen, students are drawn to the associations with the prospects of favourable reference letters from the consulate or embassy about their behaviour overseas, funding for activities, as well as perks like scholarships and tickets to entertainment events. In exchange, the Chinese missions direct the associations to create a favourable impression of the regime overseas.

Ahead of Chinese leader Hu Jintao's visit to Canada in Sept. 2005, the CSSA at Simon Fraser University called on members to join in lining the streets to welcome the Communist leader in what it called a "grand holiday with special meaning."

"This is a very important assignment, as well as an extremely noble glory," the notice read.

After Hu's trip, the students who joined the welcome group were invited to a dinner reception at the Chinese consulate in Vancouver where they were thanked. A leaked Chinese consulate document also suggested each participant had been paid $30.

Members of the University of Toronto Chinese Students and Scholars Association were flown to mainland China in July 2005 where they toured communist party landmarks. The trip was sponsored by the Toronto Chinese consulate, the Communist Party Youth League of two Chinese universities, and the communist party's official media, Xinhua and the People's Daily.

After the students returned to Toronto, UTCSSA expressed thanks for the consulate's "great support" and held a forum at the University of Toronto to share what they'd learned with "all interested students and scholars."

But while advocating for the Chinese communist regime in Canada may garner premiums, it also has consequences.

Chinese students caught spying can be expelled, while citizens can be prosecuted, a CSIS spokesperson told The Epoch Times.

In November, The Epoch Times reported that Wang Pengfei, the second secretary in the Education Office of the Chinese embassy in Ottawa, had been forced to leave Canada after he was caught spying on Falun Gong practitioners here. His application for visa renewal was denied, according to our report. The essence of the story was later confirmed to a Canadian Press reporter by staff at the Prime Minister's Office.

A source connected to the Chinese embassy later told The Epoch Times that Wang had in fact been declared persona non grata and expelled, a penalty that would make it difficult for Wang to work in another Chinese mission overseas.

Harris warns Chinese student leaders that involvement in spying activities could lead to more than just expulsion.

Once they involved illegal activities, they could be blackmailed for their life into further and more extensive activities by the Chinese government," says Harris.

Referring to the examples of communist regimes that collapsed seemingly overnight in Eastern Europe, Harris said, "this regime's days might be numbered. This could mean that one day Chinese intelligence reports spill out with the collapse of the government and expose former Chinese agents to prosecution and disgrace."

Additional reporting by Anna Yang. With files from Matt Gnaizda and Madalina Hubert.

Letter: Falun Gong and the Olympics

MWC: Letter published July 16, 2007 - Why have millions of peaceful Chinese people been branded as criminals by China’s worst (former) dictator Jiang Zemin and killed for their belief? The year was 1992. Before the persecution, Falun Gong practitioners enjoyed the quasi freedom to do their traditional Tai-chi-like exercises freely and peacefully. Owing to the practice’s great health benefits, practitioners enabled the government to save oodles of money in health care costs that was favourably recognized by the government at the time. Politburo officials read Zhuan Falun (Falun Gong main teachings) and were quickly becoming adepts. What went wrong? It was the 1998 government survey revealing that there were 70-100 million adherents in China, with Beijing alone having 2000 exercise sites, that spooked the dictator. Soon after that, to protest random beatings and much slandering of the faith, about 10,000 practitioners gathered at the government compound in a very orderly manner on April 25, 1999.

This unexpected 4.25 peaceful appeal no doubt came upon Jiang like a thunderbolt from a clear sky, bringing with it nuances of deja vu - think June 4, 1989 TAM massacre - and the surreality of a Tiananmen II incident manifesting right before his own eyes. Unprepared to confront his new class enemy, it wasn’t long after that, that Jiang launched a genocidal campaign against Falun Gong that went into full swing eight years ago, on July 20, 1999. His directive: "destroy them physically, defame their reputations and bankrupt them financially." This persecution is by far the most sinister form of evil occurring in China today--organ harvesting being the preferred method for eradicating practitioners from Chinese society. (Ref. Bloody Harvest; )

As Falun Gong practitioners stand strong behind their truth campaign against their brutal persecutors--the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)--China has seen 24 million nationals quit the Communist Party. This wave of resignations, triggered by the book ‘Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party’ recounting China’s history of bloodlust and merciless killing of over 90 million people, is a cause for celebration. China-watchers all agree that true peace will not occur in China until the party is completely disintegrated.

Yet sadly, China’s vast economic boom makes diplomats look the other way.

Thanks to the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (CIPFG), the global human rights torch relay will soon begin its peaceful journey on five continents to beam the spotlight on the persecution thus saying no to the 2008 China Olympics. So far, Beijing apologists argue that the increased international attention will cause China to improve its behaviour before the Games. Hmm! Organ harvesting of live Falun Gong practitioners is a vivid proof that it isn’t so. Furthermore, a blacklist has been distributed by the CCP, on which 43 different categories of undesirable people that should not be allowed to come to China for the Olympics are listed--among them are Falun Gong practitioners. Some improvement!

Hu Jintao, the leader of China, and the members of the IOC should be well aware by now that the Olympic games are built on the premise of fairness and justice, precisely the opposite of today's human rights situation in China. The brutal persecution of Falun Gong must be stopped and the CCP must be held accountable for their crimes against humanity. Beijing’s face lift and cosmetic laws account for naught--genocide and the Olympics cannot co-exist! Help keep the flame alive, on August 8, light a torch for human rights.

Marie Beaulieu

China ignores real problem

Mon, July 16, 2007

by EZRA LEVANT

China's main diplomatic characteristic -- saving face -- is in overdrive these days in the lead up to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. So recent widespread problems with Chinese food and drug manufacturing are more embarrassing than usual.

"Made in China" is now synonymous with "buyer beware".

First it was poisoned pet food exported to the West that killed dogs and cats, then it was toxic fish from Chinese fish farms, toothpaste sweetened with antifreeze, juice with unsafe colour dyes and children's toys painted with lead paint.

Counterfeit products are rife -- brand names and quality certifications on labels are meaningless. It ranges from the massive to the ridiculous: A recent news item out of Beijing reported that a dim sum restaurant was selling pork dumplings with shredded cardboard -- softened with industrial chemicals -- instead of pork.

The arc of all these stories is the same: The Chinese government denies the news, then tries to explain it, then executes a scapegoat.

It's the same approach they took during the SARS outbreak; it's the same approach all dictatorships take, including the Soviet Union's approach to the Chernobyl nuclear fire.

And so, it was no surprise that China announced that it had executed Zheng Xiaoyu, the head of that country's food and drug administration from 1997 to 2006.

The government alleged Zheng took nearly $1-million in bribes over that period from food manufacturers.

That's likely true -- kick-backs and bribes are the standard privilege that all senior Communist Party members take for themselves.

But Zheng's crime in the eyes of China wasn't that he allowed poisonous food, but that his corrupt trail was caught by the media.

The execution of Zheng was designed to show that China is serious about cracking down on poisonous food, and perhaps even on corruption, too.

But it actually does the opposite. Zheng's trial was not a real trial, for there are no real trials in China -- no presumption of innocence, no rule of law, no rules of evidence and no independent judges.

The judges -- as always -- are directed by the Communist Party in how to render their verdicts.

They're more clerks than judges.

Because a real trial is exactly what the face-saving Chinese Communists don't want.

They wanted a single scapegoat: Zheng. Not a transparent trial. If Zheng had been the head of the Canadian or U.S. food administration, he would have had a lengthy public trial, where prosecutors would have had to publicize the details of his corrupt deeds.

Zheng himself could have implicated others and the whole thing would have been pored over by the public and the media -- and by other food manufacturers and bureaucrats. The trial itself would have become one giant teaching moment -- where China could have used the law to teach a new, higher moral code when it comes to food and drug safety.

China didn't do that because it is still a culture of government secrecy and scapegoating. The government wanted someone to blame. Zheng probably was guilty, but a fair trial could have fingered dozens if not hundreds more, and would have forced China to come to terms with its problem.

No doubt, the entire system of food inspection would be overhauled if such a trial were held in the West.

It is only a partial truth to say that China has a food problem -- or a pollution problem.

What it has is worse: A dictatorship problem.
Next story: 'Live Earth' gig on rocky ground

Falun Gong members protest on Hill

The Harper government should do something about these atrocities sooner than later. The time is now.

By David Gonczol, CanWest News Service Published: Saturday, July 14, 2007

Ottawa Citizen via Vancouver Sun: OTTAWA - Lian Yao wonders if her husband is still alive.

The 32-year-old transplanted Montrealer, who is clinging to a refugee claim that for now keeps her beyond the reach of Chinese police, is worried her husband, Jian Ma, may be another statistic in an ongoing crackdown on Falun Gong practitioners.

It's a crackdown a recent Canadian study said includes torture, murder and systematic organ harvesting by the Chinese military.

Min Liu, of Ottawa, was part of a group of Ottawa Falun Gong practicioners on Parliament Hill Saturday marking the eighth anniversary since Chinese authorities began a crackdown on the Falun Gong in China.

David Gonczol/Ottawa Citizen

Yao was among a group of protesters who took to Parliament Hill today to demand the Chinese crackdown against the Falun Gong be condemned by the Canadian government, which up to now has only broadly criticized human rights violations in China without touching on the plight of the Falun Gong.

The protest was held on the eighth anniversary of a notorious Chinese crackdown on practitioners of Falun Gong, an ancient form of mind and body relaxation.

Falun Gong members outside of China have been battling Chinese officials in a public relations war ever since the crackdown, which saw mass arrests of what the Chinese government said was the Falun Gong leadership on July 19, 1999.

Yao was one of the speakers at today's protests, which also included scenes of mock torture.

"On Feb. 28, my husband was arrested from his office by policemen and was seriously beaten. For 23 days we had no idea where he was," Yao said.

"We have since learned he has been sent to a forced labour camp for 2 1/2 years," she said.

Her husband was the general manager of operations for China and Northern Asia for a French company called PCM Pump.

Yao, who herself worked for a U.S. software company in Beijing, said her husband has since told a family member that he believes he was arrested because of his interest in Falun Gong and his activities related to it while he travelled abroad on business.

The family believes they were monitored by Chinese agents while travelling overseas.

Yao and other Ottawa Falun Gong members complained today of "constant" computer attacks by Chinese agents and their Canadian-based sympathizers.

Lucy Zhou, a volunteer with the Ottawa Falun Gong Group, said they regularly get e-mails that appear to be from close friends, but which turn out to be rife with planted viruses.

Zhou said there been a vigorous campaign against Falun Gong groups around the world. She said she regularly receives up to 20 phone calls a day in both English and Chinese denouncing the Falun Gong and its activities.

This seems to peak around certain events, such as the release earlier this year of a Canadian study into human rights violations against the Falun Gong.

A study by David Kilgour, Canada's former secretary of state for the Asia Pacific Region, and David Matas, an immigration, refugee and international human rights lawyer based in Winnipeg, concluded that persecution of the group includes large scale and systematic live organ harvesting from unwilling Falun Gong practitioners by state groups such as the military.

"Their vital organs, including kidneys, livers, corneas, and hearts, were seized involuntarily for sale at high prices, sometimes to foreigners, who normally face long waits for voluntary donations of such organs in their home countries," the report concluded.

The report also concluded that since 1999 the government of China "has put to death a large but unknown number of Falun Gong prisoners of conscience."

Ottawa Citizen

Letters - UVic too cozy with dictatorship

Something fishy is going on at UVic!

Martlet: published July 12, 2007
by Marie Beaulieu

The recent announcement that UVic gained preferred status with the communist government of China has me more than a little bit concerned.

It’s not that I am xenophobic, but I can’t help but think about recent revelations made in Vancouver by former Chinese Foreign Affairs diplomat Chen Yonglin. He made clear that over 1,000 Chinese spies, informants and informers are active in Canada and in our universities. Their main task is to watch and suppress five groups: Falun Gong practitioners, Taiwanese independence activists, Tibetan independence activists, Xinjiang independence activists and democracy activists. So far, the Falun Gong group has been hit hardest, with perpetual harassment from the Communist front.

As a former UVic Falun Gong Club member, this news doesn’t sit well with me. If UVic president David Turpin is not aware of this, maybe somebody should tell him. I’m still not over the shock of UVic offering to reward the then-dictator Jiang Zemin with an honourary degree in 1997, two years before Zemin launched the persecution of Falun Gong in China. It’s high time for UVic to weigh in on the impact of its actions and its coziness with this brutal dictatorship. Showing some integrity wouldn’t be asking too much—sacrificing dignity over prestige is not the way to go.


Martlet: Letters - China deal ignores human rights
by Sophia Bronwen

How unfortunate for UVic to be named a preferred university by the Chinese communist dictatorship (UVic gains preferred status with Chinese government, June 14). As a former student of UVic, I feel very sad that my former university is bloodying its hands with money from this regime.

Of course it is profitable and rather vogue to be dealing with the Chinese communist dictatorship and how swell to be named a preferred university—how chic, how lucrative. And of course, UVic is not the only foreign university doing so. Educators are joining many
business people and politicians in compromising principles for profit.

The education system in China is a mouthpiece for the dictatorship. They have become sneakier with their propaganda. At every demonstration I have attended to protest a Chinese dictator’s visit, the Tibetans, Taiwanese and Falun Gong have been silenced by Chinese students who have been briefed and bussed to the site with orders to cover us up with their blood-red flag (and smaller Canadian flag) and drown out our cries for justice with the loud clanging of cymbals, precisely at the time the dictator drives past.

How many staff at UVic remember June 4, 1989, when we stared aghast at our television screens as we watched the Chinese Communist Party massacre its own students? The dictatorship responsible for this action is still in control of all universities in China. Please think deeply about this, research the human rights abuses in Chinese universities, and then make principled decisions accordingly.

Montreal Newspaper a Voice for Chinese Regime

Police probe claims that Les Presses Chinoises is inciting hate against Falun Gong

Canada Free Press: By Mark Morgan, Epoch Times Toronto staff; Thursday, July 12, 2007

TORONTO—In August of last year, Montreal newspaper publisher Crescent Chau somehow drummed up the funds to print 100,000 copies of a special 32-page tabloid—without a single advertisement—and distributed it nationwide, for free.

The newspaper was not only missing ads; it was also devoid of typical news. All 32 pages were packed with articles condemning the Falun Gong spiritual group, which is persecuted by the communist regime in Mainland China.

It was quite an achievement for Chau, whose own Chinese-language newspaper, Les Presses Chinoises, has a circulation of only 6000 and is limited in its distribution to Montreal. About 100 copies are circulated in Ottawa.

But it did not surprise Chen Yonglin, a former diplomat at the Chinese consulate in Sydney, Australia who recently visited Canada and warned that Chinese spies and front organizations are widespread here, including those targeting groups persecuted by the regime in China.

"It is clear that the Les Presses Chinoises is cooperating with the Chinese embassy and consulate and has become the hatchetman and propaganda tool for the Chinese Communist Party here," Chen says.

"It is very likely that the printing costs were directly funded by the Chinese embassy and consulate—the contents seem to be mostly produced and provided by the CCP."

Chen supports his claims with a document from the Chinese consulate in Sydney.

Titled the "Special Anti-Falun Gong Working Group Division of Labour Table" and dated February 7, 2001, it lists the responsibilities for members of the anti-Falun Gong team, which included the heads of all sections at the consulate.

For example, the head of the political affairs department was responsible for "recommending" anti-Falun Gong articles from state-run media in China for use in Chinese-language media overseas and writing anti-Falun Gong articles for publishing in Chinese-language media.

The head of the culture department was charged with sending such articles to politicians and media.

Chau denies he is taking orders from the Chinese authorities. He portrays his opposition to Falun Gong as a personal "crusade."

While Chau says he aspires to eliminate Falun Gong in Canada, he admits not having interviewed Falun Gong practitioners for the stories he published, nor having read Falun Gong's teachings.

He rejects that he has been paid to publish his anti-Falun Gong newspapers.

But according to other Chinese-language media in Montreal, the source of Chau's first anti-Falun Gong articles, a woman named He Bing, had offered to pay "whatever it takes" to have her anti-Falun Gong articles published in Chinese-language press. Reliable sources told The Epoch Times that CSIS had investigated He and believed her to be a Chinese agent.

Several other Chinese papers reportedly turned her down before her articles appeared in Chau's Les Presses Chinoises.

In her articles, which appeared first as paid ads, He Bing accused Falun Gong adherents of everything from sucking blood and bestiality to murder and suicide. She called Falun Gong practitioners "insane," "stupid," and "scatter-brained."

University of Montreal professor David Ownby, an expert in popular Chinese religions who has studied Falun Gong, called the statements "unsubstantiated filth poured upon the page" and said he'd seen nothing to suggest any truth behind He's accusations.

But Chau continued to publish such content even after two Quebec court orders told him stop, even calling practitioners "enemies of the state."

In Feb. 2001, Chau published his first anti-Falun Gong special edition, which included a petition rallying the Chinese community to "unite" in "denouncing Falun Gong."

He Bing returned to China and was paraded in Chinese state media as a hero in the war on Falun Gong.

Chau, too, became a celebrity of sorts in the Mainland Chinese press. He attended conferences in China that promoted "information exchange and business cooperation" between overseas and mainland Chinese media. State media quoted Chau as saying the Chinese regime "should strengthen its connection to the overseas Chinese community."

And Chau's anti-Falun Gong efforts were reported in national media in China, which referred to Les Presses Chinoises not as a local Montreal newspaper but as "Canada's Les Presses Chinoises. "

The coverage of Chau was so overwhelming that some Mainland Chinese thought the Canadian government had also banned Falun Gong.

"My parents in China were worried for me," said Yang Hui, one of the Montreal-area Falun Gong practitioners who were named in Chau's articles. "They saw all the reports and thought that Canada had started to persecute Falun Gong too."

In August 2006, Chau published his first nationwide anti-Falun Gong paper, with copies circulated as far west as Vancouver.

His efforts did not go unnoticed. Within four days of the "special edition" hitting the streets, the website for the Mainland China-based People's Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, published a report praising Chau.

"The Justice Special Edition [the paper also bore the English name Truth Magazine ] has 32 pages with a distribution of more than 100,000 copies," the People's Daily said. "The front page carries publisher Crescent Chau's special article … It is very sharp, rich in content, and powerful."

In it Chau parroted the Chinese regime's official line on Falun Gong, accusing the group of everything from shunning medical treatment to murder and suicide.

Such claims are groundless, say human rights groups like Human Rights Watch, but they have been used to justify the regime's violent repression of the group, which began in 1999.

Chau used these claims to rally opposition to Falun Gong in Canada.

"Everyone should join in the efforts to fight against Falun Gong," wrote Chau. "We must unite together to condemn [Falun Gong founder] Li Hongzhi and Falun Gong."

Lu Ping shown in front of his Dodge Grand Caravan filled with bundles of Truth Magazine, an anti-Falun Gong newspaper that is being called hate propaganda. (NTDTV)

New Approach

Last week, the fourth installment of Chau's Truth Magazine hit the streets in Toronto. As with the previous three, it comes on the heels of some particularly bad press for the Chinese regime.

One previous edition was published after former secretary of state for Asia Pacific, David Kilgour, and lawyer David Matas released a report concluding that the Chinese communist regime was stealing organs from live Falun Gong practitioners detained in China for sale in a lucrative organ trade.

Another came as a Chinese-language television station, New Tang Dynasty Television, put on a prominent Chinese New Year show that included one act depicting the persecution of Falun Gong in China. That one was also delivered to Canadian members of parliament.

This time, the special edition followed the visit of the former diplomat Chen who described the Chinese front organizations in Canada, citing in particular the Nation Congress of Chinese Canadians (NCCC).

The latest edition is 16 pages and makes no mention of Falun Gong on the cover. In its place is a large headline: "Will your Maple Card (Canadian residency card) expire?" But inside, the remaining 15 pages are devoted to attacking Falun Gong.

This issue repeats many of the same slurs against Falun Gong. It also takes aim at Chen and at The Epoch Times,which reported Chen's comments, and defends prominent NCCC leaders that were named in the Epoch Timesreport.

Chau calls on Chinese-Canadians to "unite to conquer" what he calls the "evil" Falun Gong and Chen Yonglin.

Curiously, though Chau's publishing company resides in Montreal, the latest ,"Truth Magazine" appears to have been distributed only in Toronto, where the three NCCC leaders named in the Epoch Times report—David Lim, Hughes Eng, and Ping Tan—reside.

Police Involvement

And from there, the links become more curious.

Since the August 2006 issue of Truth Magazine hit the streets, police in several Canadian cities have been looking into whether the papers qualify as hate propaganda.

On Saturday afternoon, Toronto police confronted a Truth Magazine deliveryman at a Chinese grocery store in the northeast of the city. He gave his name as Lu Ping.

The police asked Lu who had hired him to deliver the newspapers. Lu reluctantly provided the name and phone number of Ms. Li Miao of Canyon Web Printing.

Canyon Web Printing happens to have the same address and phone number as those listed on yellowpages.ca for the Chinese Canadian Post, which is owned by NCCC Executive Secretary David Lim.

Ms. Li, for her part, is listed as the contact for an upcoming event organized by NCCC National Co-Chair Hughes Eng and supported by the Chinese embassy's culture section.

Inaction

But aside from some investigation by police, little has been done to stop the disparaging reports.

The Ontario Human Rights Tribunal found in a separate case that Falun Gong "is a protected creed" as its essence is spiritual elevation. But to date, police have not used such grounds to lay charges.

A Montreal police sergeant who spoke with The Epoch Times last year cited sensitivities in investigating Mr. Chau because of his prominence in the Chinese community.

A trial court in Montreal said that Mr. Chau was exercising his freedom of speech in publishing the slurs, a decision that is now being appealed.

But all this has made members of Canada's Falun Gong community feel they are not being protected.

"I believe if such slanders were directed at another group in our society, it would not be tolerated," says Ottawa Falun Gong practitioner Lucy Zhou. "It seems like because this has to do with China, people can get away with saying anything about us and it's OK.

"Crescent Chau has incited hate against us for five years with impunity. I feel the system is failing us."

Bribes, Spies, and Politics

How U.S. Student Groups Are Controlled by Chinese Consulates

By Matt Gnaizda Epoch Times New York Staff

Jul 11, 2007

The long arm of Beijing is reaching into U.S. universities and grasping control of student organizations, according to recent reports. A web of bribes, spies, and political pressure is leading dozens of Chinese student groups across the United States to carry out the directives of their local Chinese Consulates to suppress and slander groups not to the liking of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

The list of universities affected is long and diverse: Columbia University, New York University, the University of Rochester, U.C. San Diego, U.C. Santa Cruz, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. These schools and many more all have a Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA) or its equivalent with a political or financial connection to their local Chinese Consulate.

For example, the University of Tennessee's CSSA financial statement from 2005 showed that 80 percent of its budget, or $1,400, came from funds disbursed by "PRC Embassy" (the Chinese Embassy). There are at least 109 CSSAs across the United States, and now questions are being raised whether any others have similar connections to their local consulates.

The CSSA at Columbia University is a case in point. Its club constitution boasts: "Reviewed by: Consulate General of the People's Republic of China in New York." Until a few weeks ago, its advisory board had only two members: Fanglin Ai and Da Yao, both officials from the Chinese Consulate in New York.

At some point in the last several weeks, after an article in The Epoch Times noted its suspicious advisory board, the club added two non-Chinese advisors from the university: Associate Dean Beatrice Terrien and Kecia Brown from the Office of Multicultural Affairs.

The Chinese Consulate appears to lead CSSA members to disrupt activities that may embarrass the communist regime.

For example, on April 20, 2007, Columbia University held a forum entitled "China's New Genocide." Among the speakers was renowned Canadian human rights lawyer David Matas, whose report entitled "Bloody Harvest" details 31 pieces of evidence showing that adherents of the persecuted spiritual practice Falun Gong are having their internal organs forcibly removed in China's state-controlled hospitals and sold illegally for transplants.

Two dozen members of Columbia's Chinese Students and Scholars Association came to disrupt the forum, attempting to refute the speakers. They carried signs with communist slogans and hate speech. Two of the students had to be removed by campus police for unruly behavior. (CSSA advisor Consul Da Yao would not comment, and hung up when telephoned by The Epoch Times.)

In addition, Columbia's CSSA Web site has nine articles in its "Lives in NYC" section that were posted after the April 20 forum. Each one slanders Falun Gong, and each is reposted from the Web site of the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C.

Columbia's CSSA and its members also receive funding from the Chinese Consulate, according to a series of e-mails forwarded to The Epoch Times by a student on the CSSA mailing list. An e-mail from April 23, 2002 promised that members would be paid $30 each to join a welcoming group for Hu Jintao. Four years later, before Hu Jintao was scheduled to speak at Yale University on April 20, 2006, CSSA list members received an e-mail promising a free bus trip to Newhaven, Connecticut, free breakfast, free lunch, and a free shopping trip to the Woodbury Outlet Mall. The busses alone would have cost more than $1000, and was not covered by Columbia University.

New York University has a similar situation. Its Chinese Culture Club, similar to Columbia's CSSA, tried to stop a Chinese classical dance competition from being held at NYU's Skirball Center for the Performing Arts.

The reasoning behind Chinese students trying to stop the cultural event lies with the dance competition's producer: New Tang Dynasty Television, a nonprofit Chinese TV network that often reports critically on China's communist regime. The Chinese regime sees the TV network as such a threat that it has spared no effort to disrupt nearly every major event the New York-based network has held in the past five years. The dance competition (which, after much ado, was held successfully last weekend) was no exception.

An investigation by the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong shows that the NYU's Chinese Culture Club was acting under the advice, if not direct control, of the Chinese Consulate to disrupt the event.

Bribes and Spies

A decade ago, Ms. Yanping Lu served as the chair of the CSSA at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. She told The Epoch Times that, at the time, she did not fully realize the Chinese Consulate was using her for espionage. She accepted small gifts from the consulate—on the order of $300 each—as a matter of routine and did not think about it further. Eventually, the consulate asked her to collect data on fellow students.

"Once, the consulate wanted me to collect information on all the students and scholars to compile a list. At first I felt this was a good idea because people could get to know and help each other," said Lu. "Later, I felt more and more uneasy. When I think about it now, I realize that was actually spying."

Mr. Yunqing You was elected president of the University of Minnesota CSSA in 2002. Soon he was introduced to a Chicago consular official named Jiacai Cheng. During the year that You was president, Cheng mailed him $3,000 in checks under his name. (You deposited them immediately in the CSSA account.)

"In fact, the so-called activity funds given by the consulate were not given to the student association," You told The Epoch Times. "Instead, the funds were given to the president individually... The checks are a direct bribe to the president. The consulate withholds checks if their directives are not followed by the president."

According to a former visiting professor at Yale University, Dr. Yuming Zhang, the Chinese regime has a large number of spies in the United States. An acquaintance of his working in the Chinese Consulate, who wishes to remain anonymous, disclosed to Dr. Zhang that, "The Chinese Consulate has placed people inside all student associations, Chinese churches, Chinese newspapers, Chinese communities, democratic organizations, and Falun Gong groups around New York. Their responsibilities are to gather information, propagandize the Chinese Communist Party's ideology, and sow discord."

Mr. Jianzhong Li was president of the Caltech Chinese Association in 1996. In an article submitted to The Epoch Times last month, he wrote, "At the time, nearly all the Chinese students' activities in southern California were organized by me and a college classmate of mine under the orders of the Chinese Consulate in L.A."

In 1998, after leaving the Chinese students organization, Mr. Li learned that the FBI had been monitoring his activities, and continues to monitor active members of numerous Chinese student groups across the country believed to be under Chinese Communist Party control.

Mr. Lixin Yang, a three-term vice-president of the CSSA at a university in Brussels, Belgium told New Tang Dynasty Television in an interview that he feels sorry for the students who get caught up with the Communist Party's politics. "Many Chinese students studying overseas think that maintaining a good relationship with the Chinese Consulates is a way to show their patriotism; they love their country, but have erroneously equated the Chinese communist regime with China... I think that in reality Chinese students oftentimes may not know the orders issued by the consulates and the real purpose behind those orders, most of which have political goals."

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