Chinese Government compiles 'blacklist' of Christians in China labelled as "cult"

Liberty News Online and NewsMax.com - China termed the Falun Gong meditation movement a cult in 1999. Since then more than 100,000 practitioners have been sentenced to “reform through labor” camps, according to sources cited by the U.S. State Department.

“They have also been given long prison sentences and even the death penalty simply because of their religious practices, and reports of Falun Gong practitioners being beaten to death in prison or while in other forms of detention have been common,” the CAA observed.

“The specter of similar treatment now hangs over house church Christians as a result of the ‘cult’ label.” More

Falun Gong Group Files Lawsuit against Beijing Deputy Mayor

Musician-Singer Yu Zhou—Killed By the CCP Under the Guise of the Olympics

Despite a legislative resolution adopted last week that prohibits known Chinese human rights violators from entering Taiwan, Ji Lin arrived in Taipei yesterday

The Taipei Times - “Having served in several party and government leadership positions in Beijing since 1998, Ji Lin has played either an assisting or leading role in mass arrests of Falun Gong practitioners in the city,” Taiwan Falun Dafa Association chairman Chang Ching-hsi told reporters outside the Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office.

“In 2008, when he served on the organizing committee of the Beijing Olympics, he launched another wave of mass arrests of Falun Gong practitioners in Beijing in the name of security, which led to the torture and death of a well-known local musician, Yu Zhou,” Chang said.

Ji, who the Falun Gong had said would arrive at 11:55pm, arrived in Taiwan at about 3pm, accompanied by a delegation of more than 200 members for meetings on potential cooperation in business and technology.

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Valley lawyer hails ruling over Falun Gong protest

Comox Valley Echo - A Courtenay lawyer is hailing the decision of the B.C. Court of Appeal to strike down a Vancouver City bylaw as unconstitutional.

Clive Ansley is the legal counsel for Falun Gong, which for some years has staged an ongoing protest in front of the Chinese Consulate-General's office on Granville Street highlighting alleged Chinese atrocities, including organ harvesting.

The battle to maintain the protest has been the subject of past public meetings in the Comox Valley.

When the City of Vancouver launched enforcement measures to clear away the protest site, Falun Gong supporters asserted their Canadian Charter right to peacefully express political views.

Ansley said that whatever the motivation of the City's previous mayor and council, "closing down the protest was of no benefit whatever to the citizens of Vancouver or Canada; in fact, all indications are that a majority of citizens supported the Falun Gong right to protest."

Following the appeal court ruling, a formal application has now been made to the City for a permit allowing them to erect a small one-person shelter and a billboard in front of the Chinese Consulate-General.

It would, said Ansley, feature "printing and graphics with information about continuing crimes against humanity being perpetrated by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)."

Ansley added: "The CCP has been remarkably successful in buying politicians in western democracies, usually at bargain basement prices.

"Often all it takes is a free trip to China with a few banquets thrown in, a scholarship for study in China awarded to the politician's offspring, or an investment opportunity."

But the appeal court decision here proved that politicians in Canada could not flout the law and get away with it when challenged.

Chinese transplant numbers don't add up due to Falun Gong being used as live donors

By David Kilgour And David Matas, Citizen Special

Ottawa Citizen: Falun Gong are members of a community of Chinese nationals with a set of exercises and a spiritual foundation. Banned in 1999 in China, they were subsequently arrested in the hundreds of thousands. Those who recanted immediately or after torture were released, but those who refused disappeared into forced labour camps and, we have concluded, became organ trafficking sources.

Our report on this matter had three versions. The first (50 pages) was released July 6, 2006; it was greatly expanded in January 2007 and then published in book form, Bloody Harvest (232 pages), in November 2009.

A critical article last week ( "Doubts cast on organ harvest claims," Dec. 1) fails to mention that one of the two internal Foreign Affairs departmental memos obtained by the Citizen, which is dated July 10, 2006, contains criticisms we later answered.

The second memo, undated, must have been written after May 1, 2007, based on the events mentioned. It has no additional criticisms, merely carrying forward the ones made four days after publication of our first version. The Citizen article overlooks the memo's most significant point: "We agree that organ harvesting of executed prisoners should cease. We have recommended (that the minister of foreign affairs) strengthen advocacy in this area.''

The Chinese party-state has not rebutted any of our evidential proofs. Here are two among the 52 we discovered:

First, only Falun Gong practitioners in the estimated 340 forced labour camps across China are systematically blood tested and physically examined. This cannot be motivated by health concerns because they are also systematically tortured. Testing is necessary for organ transplants because of the need for blood and tissue compatibility between the organ source and the recipient.

Second, traditional sources of transplants -- persons convicted of capital offences and executed, voluntary donors, the brain-dead/cardiac alive -- don't explain the total number of transplants done since 1999. Deputy health minister Huang Jiefu was reported to have said in 2005 that as many as 95 per cent of the transplanted organs in China derived from executions. Their volume went up dramatically after the banning of Falun Gong, yet the numbers of persons sentenced to death and then executed did not increase.

The main conclusion of Bloody Harvest is that the involuntary large-scale organ pillaging resulting in the death of Falun Gong prisoners of conscience continues. Their organs (kidneys, livers, hearts and corneas) are being trafficked, sometimes to foreigners who face long waits for voluntary donations in their own countries.

Our opinion is not formed from any single piece of evidence, but rather from their cumulative effect. Each is verifiable in itself and most are incontestable. In combination, they constitute an overall picture of systematic criminal wrongdoing in a country which lacks both the rule of law and independent judges.

By deducting from the 90,000 transplants which a government spokesman said were done over the period 1999-2005, those which came from executed criminals and other explained sources, we estimate that the remaining 41,500 organ transplants came from incarcerated Falun Gong practitioners.

The Citizen article states: "no credible human rights organization has corroborated the allegations." But we have won international recognition for our efforts. The Swiss Section of the International Society for Human Rights awarded us its 2009 human rights prize. Human Rights without Frontiers, headquartered in Belgium, included our work in its book Human Rights in China, published in 2009 after the Olympic Games.

Members of the French National Assembly called us as witnesses at a recent media

conference on transplants; the European Parliament invited us as witnesses to both Brussels and Strasbourg; The Transplantation Society selected our work for presentation at its biennial congress in Vancouver last summer. For our work to halt this crime, we were nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize; one of the nominators was the Hebrew Writers Association.

Since we began our work, the number of persons sentenced to death and then executed in China has decreased, but the number of transplants, after a slight decline, has risen to earlier levels. Since the only substantial source of organs for transplants in China is prisoners sentenced to death, a decrease of sourcing from that population indicates a tragic increase in Falun Gong victims.

David Kilgour is a former minister of state for Asia and the Pacific. David Matas is an international human rights lawyer based in Winnipeg. Their revised report is available in 18 languages at organharvestinvestigation.net. The book is published by Seraphim Editions in Canada.

U.S. Report says Religious Freedom in China is Worsening

NTDTV - 2010-11-29 12:40: Watch video here -- The U.S. Department of State released its International Religious Freedom Report for 2010 last week.

In China, intimidation, obstruction and torture of religious groups by authorities has gotten worse over the past year, according to the report.

Chinese authorities have pressured religious groups to affiliate with a “patriotic religious association,” and to alter their beliefs. House churches, mosques and religious schools have been closed or shut down.

After the March 2008 unrest in Tibet, monks and nuns were beaten and deprived of food and sleep for long periods of time, driving some to suicide.

Falun Gong practitioners were reported to have been tortured. Some were detained in psychiatric hospitals on the orders of security officials. They were forcefully given medicine and subjected to electric shock treatment.

In the far-west province of Xinjiang, authorities regularly failed to distinguish between peaceful Muslim religious practices and terrorist activities.

Chinese authorities also stopped unregistered Christian and Tibetan groups from participating in earthquake relief efforts.

Those who’ve defended religious freedom have been jailed, such as lawyer Guo Feixiong and the missing rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng.

2010 International Religious Freedom Report - China

Act of Courage Defied Chinese Regime’s Control

Nine years ago a group of Westerners suddenly appeared on Tiananmen Square to protest

Western Falun Gong adherents shock Chinese officials and bring encouragement to Chinese adherents by protesting on Tiananmen Square on Nov. 20, 2001. (The Epoch Times Photo Archive)

Epoch Times - When three dozen Westerners suddenly and peacefully appeared on Tiananmen Square with a simple message nine years ago, the story made media headlines worldwide. But it also carried hope to the dark corners of China’s slave labor camps, and shook up the plush offices of Chinese consulates around the globe.

The regime’s web of control was breached in broad daylight right in the symbolic heart of Beijing on Nov. 20, 2001 by 36 practitioners of Falun Gong.

They quietly converged from Europe, Australia, and North America at a pre-arranged point, at 2:00 p.m. on a sunny Tuesday. They posed, chatting and laughing, as if for a class reunion photo. Then, on signal, most sat down and crossed their legs to meditate, while a few stood tall to hold up a large, golden banner reading “Truth Compassion Tolerance” in English and Chinese. More...

Beijing's Persecution Shouldn't Fly

Wall Street Journal - But the tale of Sheridan Genrich, a flight attendant who was demoted for her religious beliefs, suggests that the Australian airline has a tin ear when it comes to dealing with China.Ms. Genser is a practitioner of Falun Gong, a form of exercise and...More

Related Article:

China Spied On Qantas Employee

Falun Gong group files application for permit to allow the erection of shelter and billboard

Press Statement by the Vancouver Falun Dafa Association

December 1, 2010—11 AM Press Conference at YWCA: We are here today to announce that we will officially apply to City Hall for a permit to erect signs and a shelter hut as part of an ongoing 24/7 protest in front of the Chinese consulate against the persecution of Falun Gong in China.

We have been at this protest site since 2001. We have exposed the escalation of the inhuman torture, forced organ harvesting, and murder of our brothers and sisters in China by the tyrannical Chinese Communist Party through which hundreds of thousands have lost their lives for believing in the universal virtues of Truth, Compassion, and Tolerance.

According to the reports on the Minghui website, during this year alone 42 Falun Gong practitioners in Guangzhou have been arbitrarily arrested and detained, including three who have relatives living in Vancouver. We’ve learned that no visitors have been allowed to see one of the relatives currently detained in the Cha Tou labour camp with neither charges nor judicial process of any kind.

This is yet another example of the abuses carried out by the regime, but there are many similar stories which have touch Vancouver practitioners personally—especially the 26 Vancouver victims who have had first-hand experience of the persecution.

Unfortunately we seldom see reports of the mass murder, genocide, and organ theft in China. The persecution remains largely hidden from the Canadian public. Meanwhile, the CCP regime’s propaganda machine keeps on pumping out more defamation and lies about Falun Gong disciples in an attempt to justify the killing.

Our voice and presence outside the Chinese Consulate-General are essential in order to raise awareness of the carnage and help bring it to an end. With the aid of the signs vividly depicting the regime’s atrocities and the reality of the persecution, we can amplify our voice and reach more people while revealing the ugly truth about the Communist Party’s dark secrets and how it tortures peaceful Falun Gong practitioners and gruesomely murders them in order to harvest their organs for profit.

We are their voice.

Practitioners in Vancouver overcome all kinds of difficulties to come to protest in all kinds of harsh weather, day and night, many of whom are seniors. It is our hope that our telling the facts of this genocide will be noticed by kind hearted people and that there will be an outcry by people of conscience the world over.

Despite much interference by the Chinese regime in Canada and here at this protest site—including death threats and the assault of one practitioner while a gun was held to his head—we are committed to our efforts to raise awareness of the persecution in a peaceful way until it stops, and we now apply to the City in accordance with the decision of the BCCA for a permit allowing us to do so in an effective way.

The persecution is a Crime against Humanity, and a gross violation of the Law of Nations. Please join us in putting an end to this most heinous evil.

Related Article:

Lawyers Say Pressure from Chinese Officials Behind Attempt to Oust Consulate Protest

Falun Gong prepares to restart protests outside Chinese consulate

Globe and Mail - A controversial protest hut that sat outside Vancouver’s Chinese consulate for years could soon return, say members of the Falun Gong community.

The Vancouver Falun Dafa Association held a news conference Wednesday to announce it has filed an application with the city for a permit that would resurrect the hut and a billboard.

The Falun Gong spiritual group started its round-the-clock vigil outside the consulate in 2001 to highlight what it calls persecution at the hands of the People’s Republic of China. The group has accused Chinese officials of jailing, torturing and executing many of its followers.

A B.C. Supreme Court judge last year ordered the Falun Gong to remove the structure and sign, which included pictures of people who allegedly had been tortured. The City of Vancouver had gone to court claiming the group broke a by-law because its hut encroached on the public sidewalk.

The B.C. Court of Appeal threw out the Supreme Court’s decision in October, ruling the city by-law restricting unapproved sidewalk structures violated the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The three-member appeal panel said the by-law did not provide sufficient protection for freedom of expression. It granted the city six months to redraft the by-law.

“We are committed to our efforts to raise awareness of the persecution in a peaceful way until it stops, and we now apply to the city ... for a permit allowing us to do so in an effective way,” Sue Zhang, the association’s spokeswoman, told reporters.

A city spokeswoman said she could not confirm the application had been received. She said a revised sidewalks by-law has yet to go before council.

Clive Ansley, the Falun Dafa Association’s lawyer, said he doesn’t expect any issues to arise from the application process.

“I would not expect much red tape, or obstacles,” he said.

Mr. Ansley said he did not know exactly when the permit application might be approved.

Ms. Zhang said closing down in the first place was of no benefit to the citizens of Vancouver or Canada. She said a majority of citizens support the Falun Gong’s right to protest.

The association also accused the Chinese consulate of pressuring city officials to have the protest removed, but did not provide any proof to support that claim.

The bid to remove the hut and billboard was launched after former mayor Sam Sullivan complained about its permanent place outside the consulate.

More related to this story

• Falun Gong wins legal fight to protest outside Chinese consulate
• B.C. Court of Appeal decision on Falun Gong