• NY TIMES: AMERICAN CITIZEN RELEASED AFTER THREE YEARS IN CHINESE JAIL
• REUTERS: CHINA TO LAUNCH NEW ROUND OF SUPPRESSION
• FDI: CHINA STATE-RUN TV SUED FOR INSTIGATING TORTURE, BRAINWASHING
• STAR-LEDGER: SONG USED IN TORTURE TAKES CENTER STAGE AT RADIO CITY
• SCMP: HUMAN RIGHTS LAWYER GAO ZHISHENG SURVIVES 'ASSASSINATION' BID

NY TIMES: AMERICAN CITIZEN RELEASED AFTER THREE YEARS IN CHINESE JAIL
SAN FRANCISCO (New York Times) -- A California businessman has returned to the United States after three years of imprisonment in China for his participation in Falun Gong... Charles Lee, 41 and a resident of Menlo Park, arrived at San Francisco International Airport on Saturday, welcomed by more than 100 supporters... The Chinese government first detained Mr. Lee on Jan. 22, 2003... based on accusations that he tried to sabotage the government by disrupting broadcasts with videotapes showing government persecution of Falun Gong... In prison, Mr. Lee said, he was beaten, deprived of sleep and food, and handcuffed in painful positions. He said the government tried to 'force brainwash' prisoners and subjected him to 'slave labor.'

REUTERS: CHINA TO LAUNCH NEW ROUND OF SUPPRESSION
BEIJING (Reuters) -- China is preparing to 'strike hard' against rising public unrest, a senior police official said according to state media on Thursday, highlighting the government's fears for stability even as the economy booms. An unnamed top official of China's Ministry of Public Security told a Wednesday meeting that China faced a long period of dangerous social discontent...In recent years, legal reformers have criticised such campaigns as contrary to China's official embrace of rule of law and human rights. But on Thursday, a meeting of law and order officials announced a new campaign against the 'sabotage activities of cult organisations', Xinhua said in a separate report. China calls the Falun Gong, a spiritual sect banned in 1999, a 'cult' that threatens the government.

FDI: CHINA STATE-RUN TV SUED FOR INSTIGATING TORTURE, BRAINWASHING
NEW YORK (FDI) -- human rights-related organizations in the U.S. have filed a civil complaint against China Central Television (CCTV) for programming that aids and abets illegal arrest, prolonged detention, torture, and brainwashing of Falun Gong practitioners... the complaint is an action for compensatory and punitive damages against CCTV for its 'intentional production, broadcast and dissemination of propaganda and other material geared specifically to incite, aid and abet, authorize, order or instigate the illegal arrest, prolonged arbitrary detention and severe mental and physical torture and brainwashing of plaintiffs and persons similarly situated in China,' says plaintiff attorney Dr. Terri Marsh... 'Its tactics are virtually identical to those used in Nazi Germany, in Rwanda, during the massacre of the Tutsi by the Hutu, and in Yugoslavia under Slobodan Milosevic,' Marsh explains. 'In all of these massacres, not only is the message always the same ('Destroy them or they will destroy you'), but the name of the mass crime that follows is genocide or ethnic cleansing, and now we're seeing something similar propagated against Falun Gong in China.'

STAR-LEDGER: SONG USED IN TORTURE TAKES CENTER STAGE AT RADIO CITY
NEW JERSEY (Star-Ledger) -- Gong Lee, a survivor of China's forced labor camps, calls it 'the torture song,' an anthem he said his captors sang as they brutalized him and other followers of the Falun Gong... Now that a version of the show [featuring the song], produced by CCTV, will appear Monday at Radio City Music Hall, Falun Gong adherents... have been protesting, claiming the show's title and its inclusion of the song is a painful reminder of their persecution - and a form of propaganda... 'The song to me is a nightmare. It's linked to the worst day of my life,' said Lee... 'When you sing that song, it means you're in line with the Communist regime.' ... Every day this week, between 25 and 100 followers from New York and New Jersey have been staging news conferences and protests outside Radio City Music Hall and the Chinese Consulate... [Lee] was sent to a camp for 18 months... he was shocked with electricity, deprived of sleep and forced to lie underneath a wooden board while guards jumped on his back, he said. Fearing for his life, he gave in to guards' demands that he join them in singing the 'The Same Song' used by guards to signify that a prisoner had renounced their faith...

SCMP: HUMAN RIGHTS LAWYER GAO ZHISHENG SURVIVES 'ASSASSINATION' BID
HONG KONG (SCMP) -- Prominent human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng says he was targeted in an assassination attempt on Tuesday night when a car suddenly braked in front of his vehicle while travelling at high speed on a Beijing road. Mr Gao said he braked hard during the incident... and managed to stop about 1cm from the other car, whose number plate was obscured by a piece of paper. Unable to read the plate, Mr Gao got out and walked to the front of the car to read its front plate. He said the car accelerated and drove directly towards him, forcing him to lose balance and topple into a flower bed on the side of the road, striking his right hand. As it drove away, the paper flapped free and revealed Beijing number plate EB8233, he said, adding that a second, military vehicle present during the incident then drove off.