Liberal Candidate Wendy Yuan’s View on Rights Abuses against Falun Gong

Look here and here for more on Wendy Yuan's twisted view akin to that of the CCP and find out why here.

News Release: Liberal Candidate Wendy Yuan’s View on Rights Abuses against Falun Gong in China Consistent with Chinese Communist Party Line

CIPFG Calls on Dion to Reject Yuan’s view, and to affirm that party policy is to the contrary

Vancouver – At an all candidates debate organized by Chinese Radio AM 1320 in the Vancouver-Kingsway riding on October 4, 2008, Liberal Party candidate Wendy Yuan spoke of Liberal Party policy regarding the rights abuses against Falun Gong in China.

Ms. Yuan stated: "For Falun Gong, our policy is not to interfere in other countries’ internal affairs.” Aside from Ms. Yuan, all the other candidates spoke in favour of protecting the basic rights of Falun Gong practitioners.

Clive Ansley, chairman of the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (CIPFG), is demanding that Liberal Party Leader Stephane Dion disassociate the Liberal Party from Ms. Yuan’s indefensible position which in effect holds that the torture, genocide, and mass murder of Falun Gong practitioners for the purpose of harvesting their organs is an internal Chinese issue, and that Liberal Party policy is to turn a blind eye toward these atrocities.

“Human Rights are universal and non-partisan,” said Mr. Ansley.

“It was shocking to hear from Ms. Yuan that the Liberal policy toward genocide, torture, and murder for the theft of organs is to cooperate with the Chinese Communist Party’s cover-up of its crimes. Under International Law, Human Rights abuses and Crimes Against Humanity can never be considered the internal affairs of any sovereign state. No state is permitted, under International Law, to violate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention Against Torture, or the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes Against Humanity. It is imperative that Stephan Dion, in the light of Ms. Yuan’s troubling statement, make absolutely clear whether the Liberal Party stands on the side of International Law or on the side of the Chinese Communist Party — the most prolific perpetrator of Crimes Against Humanity in this era.”

We have written to Dion and still await his reply,” said Lucy Zhou and Sue Zhang, Falun Dafa Association of Canada.

Background of Falun Gong

What is happening to Falun Gong in China

Falun Gong is a spiritual practice based on the principles of "Truth-Compassion-Forbearance" and includes five sets of gentle exercises and meditation. It was widely accepted in China before 1999 when the persecution was started because the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) feared Falun Gong’s popularity. Jiang Zemin, the CCP leader at the time, declared that the Party must defeat Falun Gong.

For the past nine years, the persecution of Falun Gong has been a crucial and essential part of the ubiquitous human rights abuses in China which are now endemic across the nation. UN Special Rapporteur Manfred Nowak reaffirmed in his 2007 report that Falun Gong practitioners account for 66 % of torture victims in government custody. US State Department annual reports confirm that Falun Gong adherents constitute at least half the 250,000 officially recorded inmates in reeducation-through-labour camps, while the real number likely is much higher.

The Hon. David Kilgour, former Liberal MP and Secretary of State for Asia pacific, and Mr. David Matas, renowned human rights lawyer, concluded in their independent investigative report on the illicit harvesting of the organs of Falun Gong practitioners that "there has been and continues today to be large-scale organ seizures from unwilling Falun Gong practitioners" by the "the government of China and its agencies in numerous parts of the country.”

The report stated that the widespread killing of Falun Gong practitioners for profit to provide organs for transplants is "so shocking that it represents a new form of evil on this planet.”

Aside from the organ harvesting, the Falun Dafa Information Center has documented more than 3,100 deaths of Falun Gong practitioners while undergoing torture. Many more cases of detention and death remain unreported, as the Chinese regime has imposed an information blockade and reporting these cases to outside authorities constitutes the severe “crime” of "leaking state secrets." Documentation is notoriously difficult in China and the true number of practitioners murdered by the Chinese Communist Party almost certainly reaches the tens of thousands.

Untold millions of Falun Gong practitioners have lost their jobs, housing, education, and all their basic rights, and have been incarcerated and tortured for refusing to give up their beliefs. No lawyer is allowed to defend them. Lawyer Gao Zhisheng, "the conscience of Chinese lawyers," lost his licence to practise, his law firm was shut down, and he himself was incarcerated and tortured for defending a Falun Gong practitioner and for writing to Chinese leaders calling for an end to the persecution.

Persecution affects Canadians

The persecution also affects Canadians. Currently, 13 family members of Canadians are incarcerated in China for their belief in Falun Gong. Yue Yao, wife of Canadian resident Wenyu Liu in Calgary, is one of 12 jailed practitioners with Canadian ties. In 2001 Ms. Yao was sentenced to 12 years in prison for downloading information from Falun Gong websites and printing leaflets for distribution. Mr. Jian Ma, husband of Ms. Yao Lian in Montreal, is currently serving 2.5 years in a forced labour camp for having Falun Gong-related documents at his home.

Is the Liberal Party Platform modeled after the Chinese government?

Georgia Straight: I was distressed to hear statements made by some Liberal Candidates, namely Wendy Yuan (Van-Kingsway) and others, who have been telling people at various town hall meetings that the Liberals have a policy of not interfering with China’s internal affairs when it comes to human rights issues and stopping the persecution of Falun Gong for example, now in its ninth year. Their view of Falun Gong is that it is a criminal organization and a domestic issue.

Sounds familiar? That is also the same line used over and over by the communist regime whenever anyone wants to investigate their human rights violations—they always dodge the question by using the excuse that oh ‘it’s internal affairs’.

One may wonder if this Liberal approach is deliberately done to favour the interests of China over the concerns of Canadian voters and I'm afraid that the answer is YES. Just keep in mind that this is the same regime that exports deadly products to Canada and tainted milk being the latest of a string of scandals and the worst one yet. This is the same regime that covered up SARs which killed at least 40 Canadians. The list of cover-ups is too long for me to name them all here.

Somebody should tell the Liberals that China is a signatory of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and so is Canada. Which means in a nutshell that Canada has a responsibility to try and stop such crimes against humanity as the persecution of Falun Gong under the UN Declaration. After all human rights are universal, not 'internal affairs'.

Marie Beaulieu
Victoria, BC

China makes Nobel prize warning

Hu Jia's case has attracted considerable international attention

China has said it hopes the Nobel Peace Prize will reward what it called "the right person", amid reports that jailed dissidents top the list of favourites.

BBC: The Prize is to be awarded on Friday in the Norwegian capital, Oslo.

The Chinese foreign ministry said some past choices had gone against the prize's original purpose of promoting world peace and human progress.

The award went to the Dalai Lama 19 years ago, and dissidents Hu Jia and Gao Zhisheng are on this year's list.

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the signing of the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human rights.

Stein Toennesson, who leads the Peace Research Institute in Oslo, says a Chinese dissident is hotly tipped to win.

"The Olympic Games did not bring the improvement many had hoped for, but instead led to a number of strict security measures," Mr Toennesson told AP news agency.

Of the nearly 200 nominees for the Peace Prize, Hu Jia is seen as the most likely contender.

A democracy and Aids activist, Mr Hu is the best-known of China's imprisoned dissidents.

He is credited with chronicling instances of abuse and alerting both fellow Chinese human rights activists and foreign news organisations.

He was convicted last April of inciting subversion, and is now serving a three-and-a-half-year jail sentence.

His wife has been placed under house arrest.

Torture allegations

Gao Zhisheng, another strong candidate, is a writer and self-trained lawyer who defended Chinese citizens against the state, including members of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement.

Gao Zhisheng is also a contender for the prize

Mr Gao has been beaten, harassed and given a suspended jail sentence in the last few years.

He was also reportedly targeted by an assassination attempt.

He has not been seen since he was taken from his home in September 2007 - although it has been alleged that he was tortured and has attempted suicide.

Today's remarks by the foreign ministry in Beijing are being read as a warning that a Nobel win for either Hu Jia or Gao Zhisheng would severely strain relations between China and the West.

But in opting for tough language, the Chinese government may be doing itself a disservice, according to a BBC Asia analyst, Andre Vornic.

The Nobel committee is unlikely to be swayed by crude pressure, he says. If anything, a perception of bullying could further stack the odds in favour of China's jailed dissidents.

However, with or without China's interference, their win is far from certain.

Other candidates on the short list include Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai and the Cluster Munitions Coalition.

Kilgour: JOIN INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN TO END CHINA’S HUMAN ORGAN COMMERCE

HEALTH PROFESSIONS EVERYWHERE SHOULD JOIN INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN TO END CHINA’S HUMAN ORGAN COMMERCE

---

Remarks by Hon. David Kilgour, J.D.
The 3rd Annual Health and Human Rights Conference
Biosciences Building, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario
October 5, 2008

David Matas and I have assembled more than fifty pieces of evidence over the past two years, which indicate that our conclusions about ongoing organ-pillaging across China are valid.

We found to our deep and continuing concern that since 2001 the party-state of China and its agencies have killed thousands of Falun Gong practitioners, without any form of prior trial, and then sold their vital organs for large sums of money, often to "organ tourists" from wealthy nations. We amassed a substantial body of evidence and became convinced beyond any doubt that this crime against humanity has occurred and is still happening (Our report, media reports and updates can be accessed in 19 languages at www.organharvestinvestigation.net).

These macabre deaths would not be occurring if the Chinese people enjoyed the rule-of-law and if their government believed in the intrinsic importance of each one of them. In my judgement, it is the lethal combination of totalitarian governance and "anything is permitted" economics that allows this and other inhuman practices to persist in China.

The Chinese Medical Association agreed with the World Medical Association quite recently that "organ tourists" will not be able to obtain further organ transplants in China. Whether this promise was anything more than public relations cant intended to benefit the Beijing Olympiad remains to be seen. It does seem clear that this new position by the CMA is an admission that our general conclusion—and that of other studies-- is irrefutable.

Toxic Consumer Practices

The independent media across the world have revealed over the years that numerous seriously contaminated products from China’s ‘anything goes’ economy have been sold at home and abroad. Here is the essence of a Reuters’ news story dated Sept. 18, 2008 and datelined Beijing:

• a fake milk formula tragedy four years ago in which at least 13 babies died from a powder that contained no nutrients;
  
  
• Thousands of dogs and cats became ill and more than 200 died in the U.S. alone after Chinese suppliers were discovered to have added melamine in wheat gluten and rice protein to exported pet food in 2007;
  
  
• Two brands of Chinese toothpaste were banned in the Dominican Republic in May 2007 because of fears that they contained the deadly chemical diethylene glycol, which was held responsible for mass poisoning deaths in Panama in 2006. At least one hundred people in Panama are thought to have died after consuming toxic, mislabeled drugs in cough syrups imported from China;
  
  
• In November 2006, Hong Kong and several other Chinese centres faced a crisis over duck eggs tainted with Sudan IV, a cancer-causing dye.
  
  
• In 2007, a factory manager in Chongqing region was arrested for producing chili powder tainted with the same toxic dye, and two cosmetics firms were closed for selling lipsticks containing the dye.
  
  
• Chinese-made heparin, a blood thinner, has been blamed for fatalities and adverse reactions in U.S. and German patients. In the United States, tainted heparin from China was used by at least 81 patients who died, prompting a recall.
  
  
• Several fish farms in eastern Shandong province breeding turbot, a popular type of flatfish, were fined and ordered to suspend sales in December 2006 after traces of cancer-causing chemicals, including malachite green, were detected in samples.
  
  
• The world's largest toymaker, Mattel, recalled more than 18 million made-in-China toys a year ago because of hazards from small, powerful magnets that can cause injury if swallowed only two weeks after it recalled 1.5 million toys due to fears about lead paint.
  
  
• the mounting toxic milk scandal of recent weeks, in which three infants have died and thousands have fallen ill with kidney stones or other illnesses after consuming several brands of infant milk formula found to have been contaminated with melamine (I noticed in another dispatch that news of the tainted milk was known before the Olympics began on August 8th, but was suppressed by the Party because of the Games. The warning to the world came from a New Zealand diplomat only after the Games were over, who learned of the health hazard from an investor in China’s milk export business. How many children suffered needlessly from a heartless attempt to conceal vital information from consumers in and outside China by its media, all of which is tightly controlled by the Party? Unnecessary kidney ailments have now affected more than 54,000 children),

The falsifications, cover ups and delays in releasing important information critical to consumer health are improbable in countries with democratic governance, transparency and rule-of-law. Firing people or worse forms of scapegoating, as normally happens in China when the truth finally gets out, does not address the root causes of the problems, but it’s the long-preferred way for the Party to handle crises.

Since the Olympic Games and their extensive media coverage, more of the world now knows that the milk problem is only the tip of one of many icebergs. The impact was felt in China, Canada and globally. If more people worldwide would pay closer attention to the organ pillaging commerce, the party-state in China would soon be shamed into stopping it completely.

Don’t trust; verify

Who in Canada or anywhere will knowingly put in their mouths products ‘made in China’ until quality control there is dealt with effectively by effective regulation of manufacturers? Canada and all other food/drug importers from China will have to do much more rigorous inspections of its products in future. Zero tolerance of toxic or other unacceptable ingredients in products coming from any country should be the new import practice of governments everywhere.

When you have no rules in an exporting country, slippery slopes can appear anywhere as in the case of China. In my view, pillaging organs from deemed “enemies of the Party” for cash from foreign patients is a whole new order of slope. The use of poisons in export products illustrates well the values of China’s party-state. If they could do that, it is not hard to believe that they use human bodies as bio mass for organ harvesting.

Faking the voice of the little girl who sang at the Games opening, and probably the passport of the gymnasts, also indicates how easily the party-state could falsify the identities of people used for organ harvesting. So-called 'consent' documents that organs are freely donated count for nothing. Some say organ pillaging in China is now in decline. Many insiders say it will resume now that the Olympics are over.

U of Toronto Medical Faculty Forum

At a forum at the U of Toronto Medical faculty in May, 2007 important points were made about organ pillaging in China. Gerry Koffman, the Canadian co-ordinator for Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting (DAFOH), a group of medical doctors warning medical communities internationally about the serious implications of receiving organ transplants in China, spoke about the practice as a “holocaust”.

Dr. Koffman stressed that DAFOH is a supporter of organ transplants and that it is important for people to understand the difference between organ transplants from consenting donors and those seized from unwilling prisoners of conscience, who are systematically killed by medical personnel across China for their organs.

Based on accounts from former prisoners, Falun Gong practitioners are being singled out for systematic blood-testing and medical examination in detention centres, said Dr. Torsten Trey, the founder and head of DAFOH. “It makes no sense that a group who is persecuted and tortured would be tested for their health…The killings in Nazi Germany shows that nothing is impossible when a totalitarian system loses all ethics," said the German-born and trained Trey.

Ying Dai, a Falun Gong practitioner who survived Chinese labour camps and now lives in Norway after being granted refugee status by the UN, confirmed to the forum the periodic blood testing of Falun Gong practitioners in the camps. She also told of other inhuman treatment. "For five years after being arrested, I was incarcerated. We were severely beaten. But we were not animals and we committed no crime…The degree of persecution is beyond what people in the West can imagine".

Erping Zhang, frequently a spokesperson for Falun Gong in New York, offered an overview of Falun Gong as a physical exercise and spiritual practice and of its persecution by the party-state in China. First made public in China in 1992, Falun Gong was originally endorsed by the party-state for its ability to improve health, but it fell out of favour once the Party discovered that by 1999 it had attracted more adherents—between 70-100 million-- than there were Party members.

Zhang emphasized that Falun Gong practitioners have been demonized continuously since 1999 by the entirety of the Chinese media. The media treat Falun Gong worse than criminals, Zhang said, and this has unfortunately helped to justify the persecution. As a friend who is an expert on Soviet Russia pointed out, even during Stalin’s bloodiest Terror period in the 1930s, many Russians approved him as a kindly “Uncle Joe” figure because of party control of all media across the Soviet Union.

Recent Declaration of Society of Nephrology opposing transplant commercialism, transplant tourism and organ trafficking

“All countries should take steps to govern organ donation and transplantation, thereby ensuring patient safety and prohibiting unethical practices, according to an article appearing in the September 2008 issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. The document is a consensus of more than 150 representatives of scientific and medical bodies from around the world, government officials, social scientists, and ethicists, who met in Istanbul, Turkey, this spring.

“Unethical practices related to transplantation include organ trafficking (the illicit sale of human organs), transplant commercialism (when an organ is treated as a commodity), and transplant tourism (when organs given to patients from outside a country undermine the country's ability to provide organs for its own population). The Declaration of Istanbul states that because unethical practices are an undesirable consequence of the global shortage of organs for transplantation, each country should implement programs to prevent organ failure and should provide organs to meet the transplant needs of its residents from donors within its own population. The therapeutic potential of deceased organ donation should also be maximized.

“In an introduction to the Declaration, Dr. Francis Delmonico, professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School, emeritus professor of renal transplantation at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and the Director of Medical Affairs at The Transplantation Society (TTS), noted that with the increasing use of the Internet and the willingness of patients in rich countries to travel and purchase organs, organ trafficking and transplant tourism have become global problems. Through these practices, which target vulnerable populations in resource-poor countries, "the poor who sell their organs are being exploited, whether by richer people within their own countries or by transplant tourists from abroad," he wrote. Dr. Delmonico added that transplant tourists also risk physical harm by unregulated and illegal transplantation.

“Participants in the Istanbul Summit urge transplant professionals to put an end to these activities and to foster safe and ethical practices for both transplant recipients and donors. The Declaration outlines a number of steps that can help increase deceased organ donation and ensure the protection and safety of living donors. It will be submitted to professional organizations and to the health authorities of all countries for consideration. "The legacy of transplantation must not be the impoverished victims of organ trafficking and transplant tourism but rather a celebration of the gift of health by one individual to another," the Declaration states.”

Useful Pressure from Australia

A news article by Annabel Stafford in the Melbourne Age (Aug, 28, 2008) noted that at a meeting of transplant doctors in Sydney, Jeremy Chapman, the Australian president of the International Transplantation Society, promised that his members would alert Chinese authorities when a non-Chinese person travelled to China to buy an organ and would ask the authorities to explain. Last year, the piece notes, China banned the trade in human organs and ruled that consent must be obtained from an organ donor after facing widespread condemnation over the use of executed prisoners' organs for transplant. Before those changes, there was "no doubt" Australian patients had been buying organs taken from executed prisoners, Chapman said.

China's "determination to improve its connections with the world" had coincided with its moves to improve human rights, particularly when it came to the use of prisoners' organs, Chapman said. "We need”. he added, “ to continue to assist the Chinese transplantation program to enter the mainstream of transplantation globally through the use of brain dead and living donors.”

"Certainly (China) has taken significant steps to make changes and we're optimistic the change process will be strong and will reduce the use of executed prisoners for transplants, which we are against under any circumstances. Chapman: "The open question remains: what will China be like post-Olympics?"

Conclusion

My conclusion, of course, is that all health professions across Canada and the world should join the push to end China’s human organ commerce from unwilling donors permanently.

China spies on Skype users

I hope that Skype will do more than just apologize.

"The second category involves Falun Gong, the outlawed spiritual group deemed a dangerous cult for its protest activities in China between 1999 and 2002. Since it was crushed on the mainland, adherents abroad have sought to undermine the regime. Phrases like Falun, founder Li Hongzhi and its campaign for members to “quit the party” and read “nine commentaries” comprise a separate watch list." (More /UPI/ Beijing, China)

G&M:

How a Canadian cracked the Great Firewall of China

Forgotten password, creative hacking lead Toronto-based researcher to stumble onto surveillance network tracking Chinese dissidents

MATT HARTLEY

TECHNOLOGY REPORTER

October 3, 2008

When Nart Villeneuve couldn't remember the password to his Chinese MySpace page, the industrious Canadian hacker began examining China's version of Skype, and in the process, unlocked the inner workings of an Internet surveillance network tracking thousands of political activists in the world's most populous nation.

From his tiny research lab at the University of Toronto, Mr. Villeneuve uncovered a system of servers containing the archived communications and personal information of thousands of dissidents and ordinary citizens using the popular online messaging service Skype.

"You can see that they've been tracking people who have been using Skype as a platform to promote freedom of expression and to criticize the communist party in China," Mr. Villeneuve said.

"We don't know who they gave access to those logs."

Researchers say more than 30,000 state-employed watchdogs keep a close eye on all Web traffic flowing in and out of China. During the Beijing Olympics, Chinese officials faced harsh criticism for restricting online access for foreign journalists, shuttering them behind the "Great Firewall of China."

Mr. Villeneuve was working at the U of T's Citizen Lab - a research group that tracks how countries engage in censorship and surveillance on the Internet - and turned his attention to China.

When he couldn't remember the password to his Chinese MySpace account he decided to take a look at Skype.

(Skype is a free communications tool whose software allows users to carry on voice or text conversations over the Internet. In China, eBay is a minority partner in TOM-Skype, a joint venture with a Chinese telecommunications company.)

Using a TOM-Skype account on one computer and a regular Skype account on a nearby laptop, Mr. Villeneuve would type a word into one computer and see if the other computer received the message, to see what information would be filtered out by the service's censorship tools. When he typed in a common four-letter expletive and hit send, it didn't show up on the other computer. But he noticed something else.

Mr. Villeneuve was also running a program called Wireshark, which monitors the information packets being sent through a computer's network card - think of it as putting a phone wiretap on Internet data. Whenever he punched in that swear word, the TOM-Skype software would intercept the data and transmit it to another server.

Someone was spying on him and creating a record of his conversation.

He quickly discovered the messages were flowing to eight servers that, upon closer inspection, were found to contain 166,766 censored messages from 44,254 users, as well as their personal information.

When he started combing through the data, patterns began to emerge. Messages containing phrases such as "Taiwan independence," "Falun Gong," and "Tiananmen Square" were common.

After he contacted Skype on Wednesday to inform them of the breach, the company moved quickly to plug the holes in the TOM-Skype servers, Mr. Villeneuve said.

"TOM, like every other communications service provider operating in China, has an obligation to be compliant if they are to be able to operate in China at all," Skype president Josh Silverman wrote in an apology to users that was posted on the company's website.

Mr. Villeneuve admits that there is no way to know if the Chinese government ever saw the contents of the TOM-Skype servers, but he hopes that his research encourages companies to think twice about the human-rights impact of their business decisions when entering the Chinese market.

"Just because a company has a good brand reputation outside of a repressive country, that doesn't mean that they're not going to hand over your information when asked," he said.

Number of captured messages containing sensitive keywords:

Communist

15,156

Tibet

269

Tiananmen

78

Communist Party

12,446

Democracy

270

Skype

1,952

Falun

6,744

Hu Jintao

3,331

Taiwan independence

2,363

Jiang Zemin

955

Wen Jiabao

1,356

Olympic Games

664

Li Hongzhi

485

Circumvention

224

Nine Commentaries

609

SARS

9

Earthquake

458

Deng Xiaoping

217

Voice of America

4

Milk powder

60

June 4

748

Quit the party

1,121

Mao Zedong

252

Diaoyu Islands

177

Kuomintang

105

KATHRYN TAM/THE GLOBE AND MAIL

SOURCE: CITIZEN LAB

Beijing Resident Killed During Olympics for Practicing Falun Gong

Falun Dafa Information Center (View article as web page: http://faluninfo.net/article/822/)

Neighborhood security agent confirms death, wife still in labor camp

24 Sep 2008

NEW YORK (FDI) – An elderly Falun Gong practitioner from Chaoyang district in Beijing, home to the Bird’s Nest Stadium, died from injuries incurred in custody two days before the close of the 2008 Olympic Games, the Falun Dafa Information Center reported on Wednesday.

Mr. Wang Chongjun (王崇俊), age 65, died at home on August 23, 2008 after being injected with an unknown drug in a Beijing labor camp, according to sources in China. His wife, Ms. Wang Zhiqin, remains illegally detained and is unaware of her husband’s death.

In a telephone call made to the Longzhuashu village community police working site near their home on September 9, a member of the neighborhood watch group confirmed Wang’s death.

“He died. Isn’t Wang Chongjun dead?” said a Mr. Li who picked up the phone. When the investigator asked if Wang’s family had received compensation, Li said: “I don't know. He died at home...I listen to my boss. I'm from out of town.” (see transcript excerpt and link to a recording of the phone conversation below)

The Falun Dafa Information Center (FDIC) had first reported the arrest of Wang and his wife in July 2008 (news). The couple were among over 8,000 adherents detained in a nationwide round-up that occurred in the months preceding the Olympics and has continued since the closing ceremonies as well.

“The tragic case of Wang and his wife are typical of the horrific abuses Falun Gong practitioners continue to face in China, abuses that worsened with the Olympics” says Falun Dafa Information Center Spokesperson Erping Zhang. “While Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao is speaking at UN headquarters this week in New York City, countless innocent Chinese citizens are languishing in labor camps and in grave danger. It is up the international community—including governments, media, and human rights groups—to ensure that the thousands of adherents still in detention don’t meet the same fate as Wang.”

Case Details

On the evening of April 14, 2008, local security agents raided Wang’s home without a warrant and arrested the elderly couple. The detention followed more than a week of intensified harassment and surveillance of the family, reportedly on the orders of Yang Fengling, head of the village 610 Office. Yang ordered the surveillance after Ms. Wang refused to renounce her practice of Falun Gong during a previous meeting. After their arrest, the couple was taken to Chaoyang District Detention Center. Their family was denied access to visit them.

On June 20, 2008, the couple’s family members received notices from the dispatch center at Beijing’s Tuanhe “Re-education through Labor” (RTL) Camp (more about Tuanhe Labor Camp). The documents stated that Wang Chongjun had been sentenced to two years of RTL on May 22, 2008, and was being detained in the First Ward of the dispatch center. His wife, Wang Zhiqin, had been sentenced to two and half years of forced labor on May 20, 2008, and was being held in the Tenth Ward.

According to sources inside China, while at the camp, guards injected Mr. Wang with an unknown drug, an increasingly common torture technique used on Falun Gong, that led to 11 deaths in 2007. The drug reportedly caused his skin to turn a yellowish color for him to become emaciated. Seeing that Wang was on the verge of death, the camp authorities released him so as not to be held responsible for his dying in their custody.

Upon receiving notice from the camp, Wang’s family picked him up and took him to the hospital for medical treatment. Nevertheless, Wang died at home on the afternoon of August 23, 2008. His wife had meanwhile been transferred to Shanxi Province RTL Camp not long before the start of the Olympics. According to sources close to the couple, she has yet to be informed of her husband’s death.

“We call upon the international community and media based in Beijing to use every resource available to investigate the facts for themselves,” says Zhang. “This persecution must end, lest more innocent people die.”

Transcript of call confirming Wang’s death:

The following is the transcript of a call made to the Longzhuashu village community police working site in Beijing’s Chaoyang district on September 9, 2008. An audio recording is available here (the voice of the investigator has been changed to protect their identity).

Male (A): My name is Li. I am on duty. I am not a policeman.

Investigator (Q): What is Wang Zhiqin's home phone number?

A: Her home phone is not working anymore.

Q: Did you go there when they arrested him in April?

A: I was probably there.

Q: Did you go to see him after his release?

A: He died. Isn't Wang Chongjun dead?

Q: Does anyone still live in his home?

A: He has a son who works somewhere else. I don't have his phone number.

Q: Have things been taken care of? Has his family gotten any compensation?

A: I don't know. He died at home. You can ask her . I listen to my boss. I am from out of town, I am not a local.

Q: How much do you get paid every day?
A: 20 Yuan per day.

Falun Gong News Bulletin

Falun Dafa Information Center (View article as web page: http://faluninfo.net/article/821/)

18 Sep 2008

Highlights:

• FDI: Olympic Clean-up Costs Another Life
• Reuters/Los Angeles Times: Falun Gong Reports Torture
• New Statesman: Falun Gong featured in Faith Column series by Leeshai Lemish

Other news on Falun Gong:

• New York Daily News: The Chinese government is terrorizing my parents for practicing Falun Gong
• Irish Times: UCC student fears for arrested parents
• Columbus Dispatch: OSU student felt China's persecution first-hand
• Silicon Valley Insider: Another Olympics Gold Medalist: Falun Gong

FDI: Olympic Clean-up Costs Another Life

A painter from Hunan province, arrested in a nationwide pre-Olympic roundup of Falun Gong adherents, died the day before the opening ceremonies from injuries incurred in custody. Detained in March, an emaciated Mr. Hu Heping (胡和平) from Yueyang city died August 7, 2008 according to recent reports received by The Falun Dafa Information Center. He was 55 years old.

To read more: http://www.faluninfo.net/article/805/?cid=84

Reuters/Los Angeles Times: Falun Gong Reports Torture

Two members of banned Chinese spiritual sect Falun Gong were tortured and died in police custody in Shandong province in July, the group said. Zhong Zhenfu, 58, died of injuries sustained in police custody after being held along with others from Pingdu, in Shandong, since May, the group said in a statement. Liu Xiumei, a woman from Zhucheng, Shandong, was detained in July and died 17 days later, it said, without giving further details.

Officials from Shandong province were not immediately available for comment.

To read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-briefs24-2008aug24,0,6642255.story

The article is based on the following release by FDI: “Two More Falun Gong Killed by Olympic Cleanup": http://www.faluninfo.net/article/799/?cid=84

New Statesman: Falun Gong featured in Faith Column series by Leeshai Lemish

• Being a Falun Gong Practitioner: “A mundane incident brought me ... to Falun Dafa. One evening I was arguing heatedly with my father. I suggested we take a break. Sitting on the floor, I tried coaching myself into a better state of mind: 'Ok, what should I do? Well, this Falun Dafa book here says we should act with truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. I might be acting truthfully, but I'm not being very tolerant or compassionate. I'll try keeping these principles in mind'. I returned to the kitchen and within a minute we were hugging. Soon after, I went online and found the local Falun Dafa volunteer." To read more: http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-faith-column/2008/08/falun-gong-dafa-rights-believe
  
  
• Why is Falun Gong Banned: “'If Falun Gong is benign, why is the Chinese government afraid of it?' After nine years of persecution this basic question remains common. I'll try answering it here." To read more: http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-faith-column/2008/08/falun-gong-party-chinese
  
  
• China's Other World: “It was 2:00 am and we were sitting on the floor of a Bangkok slum. We had a flight to catch the next morning, but after interviewing Falun Gong refugees for a week we still couldn't pull away from what they were telling us. 'At first I thought it was just me. But then, one after another, more Falun Gong practitioners were brought into our cell', Chen Jie said. 'Their bellies, chest and backs were also covered with black bubbles from being shocked with cattle-prods.' To read more: http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-faith-column/2008/08/falun-gong-practitioners-china
  
  
• Defying the Odds: “If this persecution is so severe, why is it so rarely in the news and why isn't more being done about it? Last month, I sat down with a journalist in a Taipei pub. 'The media have a blackout on Falun Gong', he said. 'You mean Chinese or Western media'? I asked. 'Both'." To read more: http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-faith-column/2008/08/falun-gong-practitioners-china-2

Leeshai Lemish has researched and written about Falun Gong since 2001. He has spent the past year traveling around the world to interview its practitioners, including labor camp survivors, for a forthcoming book.

New York Daily News: The Chinese government is terrorizing my parents for practicing Falun Gong

On July 17, I phoned my parents to say hello. There was no answer. I kept trying; still, no answer. Finally, I called my brother and he told me the news: They had been detained after 20 policemen broke into their home and found materials related to Falun Gong... In 2001, they were each sentenced to a labor camp for three years. They had no trial, no lawyer and no opportunity to defend themselves. Their freedom was taken away. Intensive sleep deprivation, beatings, hard labor and brainwashing classes became their daily reality.

To read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2008/08/24/2008-08-24_the_chinese_government_is_terrorizing_my-3.html

Irish Times: UCC student fears for arrested parents

A 21-YEAR-OLD Chinese student living in Ireland has spoken of his concern for his parents after they were arrested by police in China. “They took both of them to the police station and they held my mother there, and then took my father to my home. I was there at the time and they searched everywhere and busted things up and took everything about Falun Gong – DVDs, books. I haven't seen my parents since."

To read more: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2008/0827/1219680032112.html

Columbus Dispatch: OSU student felt China's persecution first-hand

As a Falun Gong practitioner in China, William Huang …served five years in a detention center, where he says he was beaten and forced to labor alongside other prisoners for at least 16 hours a day. Huang, 33, now speaks openly about his persecution. It's a freedom he has embraced since leaving China on a six-year visa this past spring to study at Ohio State University. A Ph.D. scholarship in mechanical engineering brought him to Columbus.

To read more: http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/08/24/osuchina.ART_ART_08-24-08_B4_SNB4D4S.html?sid=101

Silicon Valley Insider: Another Olympics Gold Medalist: Falun Gong

China appears to have done a thorough job of suppressing overt protests…but it appears Falun Gong has managed to use the newfound focus on China to their advantage.

The group had 13 videos among the top 100 most-viewed during the first week of the Beijing Olympics, netting 3.5 million views. And it had four videos among the top 100 the following week, netting 1 million views. That's according to TubeMogul, which tracks video views across 20 sites, including YouTube, Revver, Dailymotion and Metacafe.

To read more: http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/8/another-olympics-gold-medalist-banned-chinese-sect-falun-gong

Background

Founded in 1999, the Falun Dafa Information Center is a New York-based organization that documents the rights violations of adherents of Falun Gong (or “Falun Dafa”) taking place in the People’s Republic of China. In July of 1999 China’s autocratic Communist Party launched an unlawful campaign of arrests, violence, and propaganda with the intent of “eradicating” the apolitical practice; it is believed certain leaders feared the influence of the practice’ 100 million adherents. The campaign has since grown in violence and scope, with millions having been detained or sent to forced labor camps. The Center has verified details of over 3,000 deaths and over 63,000 cases of torture in custody (reports / sources). Falun Gong is a traditional-style Buddhist “qigong” practice, with roots in the Chinese heritage of cultivating the mind/body for health and spiritual growth.

Website: http://www.faluninfo.net/

CNN: Death for you is fine by them

Op/ed News: Diary Entry by John Kusumi

I suppose that my unfinished book, Genocidal Correctness, will explain in depth what I can only summarize now: Journalism in the United States is a bifurcated pursuit. Those who go to journalism at a state or local level tend to be competent journalists, qualified by training to get the story, whether that is fire, flood, crime, the school board, city hall, or the state house. I don't question their veracity. I've seen lots of metro and affiliate journalism that is a credit to the profession.

That's well and good, but U.S. journalism also has its federal, or network, level. While local journalism may be reality-based, network journalism is reality-agnostic. It is a place where stories are taken merely on the word of an authority who "says so." It is a place where questions are perilous to ask, and second opinions are frowned on. If a second opinion is sought, one might have one's patriotism questioned, or lose one's job. And in political commentary, it is a place where "black is white, and night is day."

If I were Adolph Hitler and putting together a propaganda department, I would want Peter Jennings, Tom Brokaw, and Dan Rather on the team. (If Jennings is unavailable, substitute Ted Koppel.) They could teach the Nazis a thing or two. And, from its upper echelons, America could contribute many more names to that roster.

It was bad enough when, late in August, I observed that China has a crime against humanity going -- Falun Gong organ harvesting, a story which gets more and more solid as time and investigation bear out the story. With recent new evidence added into the hopper, we should take it that the story is confirmed. In a recent article, I chided CNN for sitting on the story since 2006. In light of recent revelations, there is a right thing to do, which is to break the story to the audiences who watch CNN. Alternatively, there is a morally reprehensible thing to do, which is to continue to sit on the story.

It is bad enough that they continue to sit on that story, because there is a modern-day holocaust occurring in China. If you are a civilian in China who wants to practice religion, or politics, or journalism, or law, CNN is clearly signalling that "Death for you is fine by them." On September 3, I fielded an interview with a Chinese broadcaster who was following up about my article. In many different ways, the question was asked, "What is the problem with the mainstream media?" I tried to field the question in a way that leaves open some room for change. Perhaps, pendulums also swing back, and the MSM may yet come around and reflect humanity on this story.

So, I didn't tell the Chinese audience that "death for you is fine by them." I hemmed and hawed and made some excuses, explaining that for political reasons, U.S. mainstream journalists want to carry water for the powerful. I added that "pendulums also swing back," as for example after Watergate -- a time when America had an independent media. I also said that the Chinese Communist regime has been experiencing a run of good fortune, but that their luck would run out.

However, it becomes onerous and burdensome to have any optimism about the U.S. press. (Again, I'm speaking of the federal / network level of the press, not the metro print, radio, and affiliate media which are on the other side of this bifurcated journalism profession.) It may be simpler to report that "death for you is fine by them," and now there begins to be yet more evidence at hand that other civilians -- Americans, not just Chinese -- are also getting the same signal.

They are setting us up for World War III.

First John McCain, and then Rudy Giuliani made the absurd claim to Americans that, "We are all Georgians now." Excuse me? I am not a Georgian. Nor would I escalate that conflict into World War III. Georgia began that conflict by committing atrocities against civilians. Previously, Georgia turned away from freedom to the extent that it imposed severe limits on opposition and shut down free media. Georgia's President very likely belongs in the International Criminal Court, on trial for crimes against humanity.

But, look at the mainstream spin, which CNN passes along: "We are all Georgians now." I beg your pardon? We are all being set up for World War III now. And why? It's because, "Death for you is fine by them." I'm sure that CNN is prepared to report on World War III, and prepared to be quite chipper as usual. There may be an upcoming Britney Spears trial, so perhaps World War III will never get mentioned at all! Boy, isn't that a clean way of handling the story -- not at all! The CNN audience could all move into refugee camps, and that too would go unreported. I'm sure they would be equally as chipper and cheerful when they broadcast to refugee camps. Remember, death for you is fine by them....

John Kusumi ran independently for U.S. President in 1984, as the teenager going up against Ronald Reagan and Walter Mondale. He was the first Generation X politician in U.S. federal elections, and Ronald Reagan's youngest political opponent ever.

In 1989 Kusumi launched the China Support Network, a grassroots organization of Americans supporting the Chinese democracy movement - amid outpouring of response to the massacre of college students and other civilians in and around Tiananmen Square.

In 1994 Kusumi launched Xcalibur Development Co., incorporated in 1995 as XDC, Inc. The firm creates software and technical services, generally in the B2B (business-to-business) space of contracting and specialized consulting, with a Fortune 500 clientele.

Doctors join push to end organ trade

Annabel Stafford
August 28, 2008

The Age: AUSTRALIAN doctors will dob in Chinese hospitals that sell the organs
of executed prisoners to Australian patients as part of a global push
to stamp out the illegal trade in human organs.

At a meeting of transplant doctors in Sydney this month, the
Australian president of the International Transplantation Society
promised that his members would alert Chinese authorities when a
non-Chinese person travelled to China to buy an organ and would ask
the authorities to explain.

Society president Jeremy Chapman stressed that the society would not
be dobbing in patients but hospitals, which under recent changes to
Chinese law are banned from buying or selling organs.

Last year, China banned the trade in human organs and ruled that
consent must be obtained from an organ donor, after facing widespread
condemnation over the use of executed prisoners' organs for
transplant. Before those changes, there was "no doubt" Australian
patients had been buying organs taken from executed prisoners,
Professor Chapman said.

As well as the ban on organ trade, the Chinese Ministry of Health has
ruled that foreigners can get transplants in China only with
government approval, according to the BBC.

China's "determination to improve its connections with the world" had
coincided with its moves to improve human rights, particularly when it
came to the use of prisoners' organs, Professor Chapman said.

"We need to continue to assist the Chinese transplantation program to
enter the mainstream of transplantation globally through the use of
brain dead and living donors," he said.

"Certainly (China) has taken significant steps to make changes and
we're optimistic the change process will be strong and will reduce the
use of executed prisoners for transplants, which we are against under
any circumstances.

"The open question remains: what will China be like post-Olympics?"

Professor Chapman estimated about five Australians a year had received
organs from executed prisoners before the law was changed. He had
treated three patients he believed had bought organs taken from
executed prisoners. While none of them had admitted receiving a
prisoner's organs, he said: "They never ask the question, they just
buy a kidney."

Falun Gong barred from Chinese New Year parade in San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement won't be allowed to participate in San Francisco's Chinese New Year parade and street fair.

The state Supreme Court last week rejected the group's challenge to the parade sponsor's decision to exclude them from the annual festival.

Falun Gong members sued the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in 2006 after the chamber barred them because of the group's ongoing opposition to the Chinese government.

A lawyer for the chamber says all participants with political messages are banned.

A lawyer for Falun Gong says they may take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court to determine whether sponsors of events such as street fairs and parades can deny participation for political reasons.

Why is Falun Gong Banned?

by Leeshai Lemish

New Statesman: 19 August 2008 - Leeshai Lemish looks at the history and causes of the Chinese Communist Party’s campaign against Falun Gong

‘If Falun Gong is benign, why is the Chinese government afraid of it?’ After nine years of persecution this basic question remains common. I’ll try answering it here.

In the 80s, Chinese parks brimmed at dawn with some 200 million people performing slow-movement exercises known as qigong. In 1992 Master Li Hongzhi introduced Falun Gong, outwardly a qigong practise like any other. But Master Li uniquely placed emphasis not on healing or supernormal abilities, but on self-cultivation towards spiritual perfection.

Falun Gong became an almost instant hit. Master Li travelled through China introducing the practise and its principles. Word of Falun Gong spread quickly, and it could soon be found in thousands of parks. The Chinese embassy in Paris invited Master Li to teach in their auditorium, and an official study found that Falun Gong saved the country millions in health costs.

Fast-forward to July 1999 and suddenly Falun Gong is public enemy number one. Practitioners are sentenced to ‘reform through labour’ camps where they are starved, beaten, and tortured with electric batons. By 2008, there are over 3,000 documented cases of practitioners killed by state persecution. Increasingly solid evidence suggests many more have been targeted as unwilling donors of kidneys, livers, and hearts. How many more, we have no idea.

Why, then, this bizarre persecution?

Weak explanations

Facing international criticism and domestic sympathy for Falun Gong, the ruling Chinese Communist Party scrambled to rationalise its campaign. It has claimed Falun Gong is a menace to society - a superstitious, foreign-driven, tightly organised, dangerous group of meditators. State-run media tell gruesome stories of mutilation and suicide, but outsiders aren’t allowed to examine them. When investigators somehow manage to scrutinize such cases, they find stories of individuals who don’t exist and crimes committed by people who have nothing to do with Falun Gong. Human Rights Watch simply calls the official claims ‘bogus’.

Some Western academics have suggested Party leaders feared Falun Gong because it reminded them of past religions-turned-rebellions. But the broad-brush parallels ignored how bloody those groups were – the often-referenced Taiping, for example, was responsible for 20 million deaths. Falun Gong has been strictly non-violent and had no rebellious plans.

One final flawed explanation is that the April 25, 1999 gathering of 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners in the political heart of Beijing startled Party leaders and triggered the oppression that followed.

But the peaceful demonstration actually came after three years of escalating state oppression already taking place. In fact, it was a direct response to practitioners being arrested and beaten in nearby Tianjin and a smear media campaign against them.

The individual leader explanation

The incident was pivotal, but for different reasons. That April day, Premier Zhu Rongji engaged members of the gathered group and listened to their grievances. Those arrested were released. Practitioners who were there told me they had felt elated about the open communication between the government and its people.

But that night, then Chairman Jiang Zemin rebuffed Zhu’s conciliatory stance. He labelled Falun Gong a threat to the Party and said it would be an international loss of face if Falun Gong were not immediately crushed. Indeed, many experts attribute the campaign to Jiang’s obsession with Falun Gong as much as any other factor.

The popularity explanation

What appears to have scared Jiang and other Party hardliners (some who are still in top posts, maintaining the campaign) was how popular and cross-social strata Falun Gong had become. In northern cities, workers practised Falun Gong together in factory yards before heading to the machines. Professors and students meditated on Tsinghua University lawns. Party leaders’ wives and senior cadres had their own little group in central Beijing.

This fear of Falun Gong’s popularity explains why its main text, Zhuan Falun, was banned from publication weeks after becoming a bestseller in 1996. And why, when a government report estimated there were more Falun Gong practitioners (70 million plus) than Party members, security agents began interrupting exercise sessions.

The predatory Party-state explanation

For decades the Party has persecuted different groups – intellectuals, artists, clergy, conservatives, reformists – through political movements. Some are targeted because they are outside Party control or have their own ideology. Falun Gong, with its spiritual teachings, sense of community, and independent network falls into that category.

Others are targeted when Party leaders manoeuvre to align power to themselves. Falun Gong appears to be a victim of that, too, as the persecution provided an excuse for strengthening state security apparatuses. It gave the Party an opportunity to oil its machinery - from Cultural Revolution-style purges to Internet surveillance systems.

As torture survivor Zhao Ming told me in Dublin, ‘the Party’s machinery of persecution was there - Jiang pushed the button’.

Another Olympics Gold Medalist: Banned Chinese Sect Falun Gong

Michael Learmonth | August 25, 2008 7:00 AM

Silicon Alley Insider: One of China's biggest fears going into the Olympics was that the event would give a bigger megaphone to banned groups, such as the Free Tibet movement and the Falun Gong religious sect.

China appears to have done a thorough job of suppressing overt protests -- and even restricted access to Web sites for visiting journalists -- but it appears Falun Gong has managed to use the newfound focus on China to their advantage.

The group had 13 videos among the top 100 most-viewed during the first week of the Beijing Olympics, netting 3.5 million views. And it had four videos among the top 100 the following week, netting 1 million views. That's according to TubeMogul, which tracks video views across 20 sites, including YouTube, Revver, Dailymotion and Metacafe.

It's the first time Falun Gong has any video in the top 100 since TubeMogul started keeping track in 2006, and until opening day of the Olympics Falun Gong videos had netted a mere 95,000 views. What changed? Hard to say; a PR push could have helped, as could paid promotion on some sites. It also helps that the videos make sensational claims, including this "news" report on organ stealing in Chinese labor camps.

See Also:

Falun Gong: defying the odds

by Leeshai Lemish

New Statesman: 21 Aug. 08 - Leeshai Lemish talks about Falun Gong’s resistance and the complicity of the West

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

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

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

On the Defensive

At 3:00pm, 22 July 1999, a news anchor appeared on Chinese screens to announce that Falun Gong was banned. Protesting the ban was also banned.

Falun Gong practitioners in China didn’t know what to do – they were meditators, not political activists. They only knew that the ‘Falun Gong expose’ on television 24-7 was full of lies, and that many of their friends had already been arrested. They thought it was a misunderstanding. Something had to be done.

So they went to designated petition offices to register their complaints. They were arrested. They went to Tiananmen Square to meditate – they were beaten and then arrested.

Naïveté was quickly replaced by a startling realisation – this was a long-prepared-for campaign ordered by the highest echelons of the ruling Communist Party. They were up against the machinery of the world’s biggest authoritarian state.

Some suggested they just practice at home and wait out the campaign, but even that proved unsafe. As their friends and neighbours were tortured to death, Falun Gong turned to the public with a non-violent grassroots movement.

Far from the Western press, they still distribute leaflets and VCDs, hang banners, write letters, and post torture cases online. More daring feats include scaling trees to hide timed loudspeakers that blare about prison torture and killing as police scamper underneath looking for the source. Those caught often pay with their lives.

Out west

As persecution flared in China, out west Falun Gong had no organised voice or press office. Chinese graduate students and other practitioners drove overnight to Washington. When they got there they argued: ‘We should hold a press conference’. ‘No, we should hunger strike’!

Eventually, practitioners showed up at congressional offices wearing shorts and T-shirts. Told that was inappropriate, they returned in suits, fold lines still showing on their new button-down shirts.

One practitioner used his savings to make thousands of copies of black-and-white fact sheets. Years later those seemed too simple, so a biologist and his wife printed beautiful, glossy newsletters. But then people started snickering – ‘Falun Gong, they have so much money’.

In Taiwan, officials ask me if Falun Gong is funded by the CIA. In DC, I’m asked if Falun Gong is funded by the Taiwanese. The truth is, funding comes from very dedicated practitioners.

Those people who showed up in shorts back in 1999 now run budding media enterprises funded by advertising and the pockets of a few practitioners who can afford to donate.

They have already registered successes. The Nine Commentaries, printed by the Epoch Times, has sparked waves of resignations from the Chinese Communist Party. New Tang Dynasty Television has been at the forefront of reporting on debacles associated with the Sichuan earthquake, Tibet and other stories Chinese media won’t cover. Until recently a French satellite company beamed this content into China. Beijing pressured Eutelsat to betray the contract, according to Reporters Without Borders.

Indeed, Beijing has spared little effort. Chinese diplomats hand officials in London and Geneva magazines comparing Falun Gong to groups that gas subways and commit mass suicide. They wave carrots of ‘sister city’ relations, and sticks of cancelling business deals.

Top universities haven’t escaped either. At my alma mater, the London School of Economics, carrots are exchange programs and the Confucian Institute. As many will admit in private, the stick of being denied access to China has long kept scholars from writing boldly about Falun Gong.

Taboo

A study I published about Western press coverage found that the more Falun Gong practitioners have been killed, the less media have reported on it. Practitioners, like starving Africans, have become what Herman and Chomsky call ‘unworthy victims’.

Be it due to self-censorship policies, a bias against religion, judgments that Falun Gong is weird, compassion fatigue, or Falun Gong’s own poor marketing skills, many journalists avoid the story.

Meanwhile, media conglomerates have been falling over each other trying to get into the China market. Some media websites (like the BBC and SCMP) have been blocked after running a story on Falun Gong - one of China’s biggest taboos. So they remain mostly silent. That is why practitioners are producing their own media.

In China, many remain apathetic. But leading lawyers, activists, local officials, and countless ordinary Chinese have gradually come over to Falun Gong’s side. Yet in the West, many still speak of cultural relativism or illusions that the Olympics and free-trade will solve it all - eventually.

But those with relatives rotting in jail cannot wait. Practitioners are further motivated by belief in karma. They worry that those who are complicit, knowingly or not, are ultimately hurting themselves. They are also optimistic that no just action will go unrewarded.

Falun Gong practitioners will thus keep telling people about the persecution until it ends. We ask you to help us - through your thoughts and prayers, words and deeds, emails and links.

China coming out its way

China Post: Aug. 27 08 - Like it or not, China has come out in her own way through the Beijing Olympic Games. It scored the most gold medals (51, 15 more than the U.S. in second) and more important, kept its censorship intact on Tibet and Falun Gong issues despite international criticism.

The Beijing Games were a victory for the ruling communists, the victory of a one-party state that has removed the spontaneity and joy of the Games, and proved form can triumph over substance.

Beijing leaders used to believe in communism; now they simply believe in communist rule. Each Olympics goes a long way to characterize the host nation. Thus it was, for example, that the Barcelona Games finally expunged the image of Spain's fascist past and established the vibrancy of a relatively new democracy. The Moscow Games were definitive in reaffirming the grim reputation of the old Soviet Union. Enough has been said about Hitler's Olympics in Munich to be sure of its lingering impression on the world.

However, when the authoritarian regime in South Korea sought to use the Seoul Games to assert the supremacy of the dictatorship, it ended up signaling its demise. The Beijing leadership is sure the same won't happen in China.

Those who look to the Olympics to affirm China's position as a world power capable of staging world-class events should not be disappointed. Those who said the state should display ruthless authoritarianism have equal cause for satisfaction.

Beijing's cheerleaders rightly predicted that China had the ability to produce a spectacular and well-organized event that would linger in the memory for its magnificence.

And the critics, who were concerned over the impact on human rights and freedom of expression, also proved to be correct because China quickly abandoned pledges to allow demonstrations or permit reporters to do their job freely; nor was the great firewall surrounding the Internet in China dismantled.

But as Beijing has sentenced two frail women in their late 70s to labor camp because they insisted on applying to hold a legal protest during the Olympics, then that is an outrage to be addressed not by "silent diplomacy" but by crying it out aloud.

At a cost of US$40 billion, the Beijing Olympics represented the most expensive coming-out party in history, many doubt whether China will earn a decent return on its investment. The anticipated influx of tourists did not materialize, and despite "selling every ticket" efforts, venues were less than half full.

The total number of visitors to the city this month is virtually unchanged from the figures from the previous August. Sports fans have crowded out regular visitors during what is normally a busy tourist season, and strict security measures have scared away other potential guests. The Olympics have instilled a sense of pride in the Chinese people, over 80 percent of whom report that they believe the country "is on the right track." An astounding 93 percent of Chinese surveyed by the Pew Research Center said the Games would improve the country's image.

China won 51 gold medals, which is the highest tally for any nation since the former Soviet Union won 55 in Seoul in 1988. For the 1.3 billion Chinese, the US$40 billion Games was worth it.

UCC student fears for arrested parents

UCC student Liang Tang, whose parents have been detained by the Chinese authorities.
Photograph: Daragh Mac Sweeney/Provision

BARRY ROCHE, Southern Correspondent

Irish Times: A 21-YEAR-OLD Chinese student living in Ireland has spoken of his concern for his parents after they were arrested by police in China.

The arrest comes as authorities reportedly cracked down on the Falun Gong group in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics.

Tang Liang, a second-year finance student at University College Cork (UCC), was on a visit home to Zheng Zhou city in Henan province when his mother, Aiqin Wang (45), and his father, Yu Lin Tang (46), were arrested by police on June 16th last.

He said his mother was seen by police at a bus stop with a DVD “with commentaries about the Chinese Communist Party [CCP]”, and both she and his father were arrested.

“They took both of them to the police station and they held my mother there, and then took my father to my home. I was there at the time and they searched everywhere and busted things up and took everything about Falun Gong – DVDs, books. I haven’t seen my parents since.”

Falun Gong is a spiritual practice involving sets of meditation techniques. However, the Chinese government regards it as a dangerous cult and thousands of its practitioners have been jailed since 1999.

Falun Gong leaders said earlier this week that more than 8,000 of its followers had been detained in recent months, as China tried to prevent any embarrassing disruption to the Olympics.

Liang, who came to Ireland in 2006, returned to Cork at the end of June but has been in regular contact with his uncles and aunts, who have been trying to find out how his father and mother are being treated.

He knows his mother is being held in prison in Zheng Zhou and is facing trial on charges relating to the distribution of the DVD critical of the CCP, while his father was held at the same prison but has since been moved to a detention centre.

“They are in different situations – my father was just driving a car so there so there’s not enough evidence to prove he is really involved. The public prosecutor said there was not enough evidence and he went up to the police station to set him free.

“But the police . . . didn’t want to set my father free because they were on a sort of a mission that the communists gave them during the Olympic period – to catch more people just to shut people up during the Olympic Games.

“They sent him to a brainwash study group to tell you how bad Falun Gong are – this group was later sent to . . . a suburb of Zheng Zhou to avoid foreign journalists in China for the Olympics.

“According to one of my uncles, they said they wouldn’t set him free until after the Olympic Game[s] is over and even after that he might face the labour camps,” said Liang, who is himself a Falun Gong practitioner.

Liang is most concerned about his mother, as she suffers from high blood pressure, and, from information from her lawyer, she is being held in even tighter security. Liang says he fears that she may tortured.

“Her lawyer says she will be held in prison for at least three years and maybe 10 years. Three years is the best she can hope for, and for this you need to back down and say you are wrong, but my mother won’t do that because she’s a strong believer.”

The Irish Times was unable to obtain a comment from the Chinese embassy on the issue, despite repeated efforts.

© 2008 The Irish Times

Two More Falun Gong Killed by Olympic Cleanup

Falun Dafa Information Center (View article as web page: http://faluninfo.net/article/799/)

Not far from sailing competition, Falun Gong practitioners tortured to death

23 Aug 2008

NEW YORK (FDI) – In Shandong province, home to the 2008 Olympics sailing competition, two Falun Gong practitioners were tortured to death before the Games. Mr. Zhong Zhenfu (钟振福) from Pingdu city died July 20, and Ms. Liu Xiumei (刘秀梅) of Zhucheng city died July 27, less than two weeks before the opening ceremony, according to reports received by the Falun Dafa Information Center.

Ms. Liu Xiumei (刘秀梅)

Ms. Liu Xiumei - According to sources in Shandong province’s Zhucheng city, local police escalated the persecution of Falun Gong adherents in the months before the Olympics. State-supervised neighborhood watch groups have been forced to closely monitor Falun Gong practitioners. Local officials must submit daily reports about each practitioner under surveillance and search after any practitioners who have disappeared.

Over 8,000 Falun Gong practitioners have been arrested in roundups during the months leading up to the Olympics (article).

In July 10, police station chief Ding Bofeng searched Ms. Liu Xiumei’s home in Guanzhuandian village without providing any legal documents, sources say. Ms. Liu was detained and held in the Zhucheng City Detention Center.

When Liu’s family went to the Zhucheng City Police Department to inquire about her situation, they were told she was fine and would be released in a few days. But, on July 27, Liu’s husband received notification that his wife had died in detention - only 17 days after her arrest.

Liu’s body is being stored in the Zhucheng City Funeral Home. Details surrounding her death have not yet been confirmed.

Mr. Zhong Zhenfu, 58 - At approximately 6:00 p.m. on May 4, 2008, policemen and officers from Pingdu city’s 6-10 Office (about 6-10 Office) began searching Falun Gong practitioners’ houses. Police believed these were hideouts where practitioners were producing leaflets and VCDs about human rights abuses. They confiscated books, printers, satellite dishes and other electronic equipment.

Illustration of "Iron Chair"

Without warrant, the officers arrested three practitioners - Ms. Xu Aifang, Mr. Wang Yunchong and Mr. Zhong Zhenfu. That night, the practitioners’ arms and legs were strapped to “iron chairs” and they were interrogated.

Sources inside China say that after three days the practitioners were taken to the Pingdu City Detention Center, where guards shackled Mr. Zhong and beat his head with metal wires. He was then detained in a metal cage. When the guards tried to force him to curse at the founder of Falun Gong Mr. Zhong refused. He was then beaten for an hour with metal wires. When the guards finally stopped, Mr. Zhong was injured to the point that he was unable to stand.

Sources reported that the guards then sent Mr. Zhong to a hospital, where a doctor said his injuries were very severe. To avoid assuming any responsibility for his critical condition, detention center officials released him on medical parole. During the month-plus period that Mr. Zhong was in the hospital, he had to pay for his own medical expenses, totaling over 10,000 yuan ($1,500 US).

Unable to recover from the torture, Mr. Zhong died on July 20, 2008, exactly nine years after the persecution of Falun Gong began.

Mr. Zhong Zhenfu’s background: Mr. Zhong and his wife, Zhong Shuhua (56), lived in Zhongjia village, Changle town, Pingdu city in Shandong province. They began practicing Falun Gong in 1997. But after 1999, when the Chinese Communist Party began a nationwide campaign of persecution targeting Falun Gong practitioners, the couple was repeatedly arrested. Without ever showing a warrant, police searched their home over 50 times and confiscated thousands of dollars worth of possessions. In 2004, when Mrs. Zhong was sentenced to three years in a labor camp, Mr. Zhong fled his home to avoid further arrest.

“We call upon the international community, while they are in China for the Olympics, to use every resource available to investigate the facts for themselves,” says Falun Dafa Information Center spokesperson Ms. Gail Rachlin. “This persecution must end.”

Background

Founded in 1999, the Falun Dafa Information Center is a New York-based organization that documents the rights violations of adherents of Falun Gong (or “Falun Dafa”) taking place in the People’s Republic of China. In July of 1999 China’s autocratic Communist Party launched an unlawful campaign of arrests, violence, and propaganda with the intent of “eradicating” the apolitical practice; it is believed certain leaders feared the influence of the practice’ 100 million adherents. The campaign has since grown in violence and scope, with millions having been detained or sent to forced labor camps. The Center has verified details of over 3,000 deaths and over 63,000 cases of torture in custody (reports / sources). Falun Gong is a traditional-style Buddhist “qigong” practice, with roots in the Chinese heritage of cultivating the mind/body for health and spiritual growth.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT THE FALUN DAFA INFORMATION CENTER