"Chinese society has been torn apart this past year as 70 million people have been denied their basic human rights. We look to them for inspiration." - Practitioner Adam Montanaro at New York World Falun Dafa Day Celebration, May 13, 2000 in Bryant Park, New York City

US FALUN DAFA INFORMATION CENTER - Contacts: Gail Rachlin rachlin@mindspring.com 212-501-8080á

  • HUMAN RIGHTS MONITORING PLANNED TO GET TRADE BILL THROUGH CONGRESSá

  • CHINA REJECTS MONITORING, STEPS UP CRACKDOWN ON QIGONG AND OTHER SPIRITUAL PRACTICESá

  • PSYCHIATRIC COMMITTEE URGES INVESTIGATION INTO USE OF MENTAL HOSPITALS TO DETAIN AND TORTURE FALUN GONG PRACTITIONERSá

  • WORLD FALUN DAFA DAY CELEBRATED WORLDWIDE DESPITE BEIJING ARRESTS

HUMAN RIGHTS MONITORING PLAN COULD ASSIST US-CHINA TRADE DEAL PASSAGE BUT HOW WILL IT IMPACT URGENT RELIGIOUS FREEDOM CONCERNS?

WASHINGTON, May 11, 2000 (Reuters) - A congressional agreement was reached Wednesday on legislation to monitor human rights in China and other Beijing policies, a breakthrough that may clear the way for passage of permanent trading benefits for China next week Many Democrats had demanded the monitoring plan in exchange for supporting PNTR, which would ensure that U.S. companies benefit from the market-opening agreement struck by President Clinton in November 1999... Questioned by CNSNews.com about the recent report of the congressionally-sponsored U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, which recommended that PNTR not be extended to China unless specific goals toward lifting restrictions on religious freedom were met by Beijing, Doug Bereuter (R-NE) called the report "surprising and not helpful." "That report does not seem to represent the opinion of most religious leaders," Bereuter told CNSNews.com. "In fact, most religious leaders say that religious freedom in China has advanced dramatically in the past year." But Lawrence Goodrich, communications director for USCIRF, "One can argue about the best way to approach human rights in China, but it's hard to see how anyone could argue that things have gotten better in China concerning religious freedom."á

CHINA ON PROPOSED HUMAN RIGHTS MONITORING: "UNACCEPTABLE"

BEIJING, May 12, 2000 -- (Agence France Presse) China said it opposed any plans by the United States to set up a group to monitor human rights as a condition to granting permanent normal trade relations. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said such a watchdog body constituted interference in China's internal affairs. "This is something we can by no means accept," she said.á

WORLD PSYCHIATRIC ASSOCIATION URGED BY COMMITTEE TO INVESTIGATE CHINESE USE OF MENTAL HOSPITALS IN CRACKING DOWN ON FALUN GONG

The Committee on Misuse and Abuse of Psychiatry is appealing to the American Psychiatric Association board of trustees to urge the World Psychiatric Association to look into the reports of Falun Gong practitioners being detained and tortured in psychiatric hospitals. In their statement, the committee "expressed outrage at many reports of alleged involuntary detention of non-mentally ill Falun Gong practitioners, and urged that the board of trustees formally request the World Psychiatric Association to investigate the matter." The committee, chaired by Dr. Renato Alarcon of the Atlanta VA Medical Center, is responsible to the Council on Professional Values and Human Dignity of the APA.á

SPIRITUAL BELIEFS POSE A NEW CHALLENGE FOR CHINA

WASHINGTON (GANNETT NEWS SERVICE)-- A big religious resurgence is sweeping China, triggering a crackdown on Catholic bishops, Protestant ministers, and spiritual groups like Falun Dafa because the nation's leaders are "terrified" that it could bring them down, a China expert said. "There is a mushrooming of [religious] belief" across China, David Aikman, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, told an all-day policy seminar Wednesday at the Ronald Reagan Institute for Public Policy. "And there is a deep worry that religion might literally overthrow the Communist Party," which has nothing to offer since the death of Marxism. China last July outlawed the Falun Dafa also known as the Falun Gong after the meditation-and-exercise group shocked the government by turning out 10,000 silent protesters in the neighborhood of the leadership headquarters. Since then, Falun Dafa members who appear on the streets are beaten and hauled off to prison. Likewise, eight Catholic bishops were taken to prison with no explanation, and a Protestant minister who violates Beijings rules has been arrested at least 15 times, the latest last week. Religion, said Aikman, could fill "the dangerous vacuum in society" that has the leadership muddling through day-to-day life.á

SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST, (Monday, May 15): Most qi gong organisations have been told to set up Communist Party cells to enable the authorities to exercise tighter supervision over the potentially "subversive" groups. This is one of a number of measures by party and government authorities to control qi gong outfits through a "licensing" system.á

WORLD FALUN DAFA DAY CELEBRATIONS MARK PRACTICES 8th YEAR

BEIJING (AP) -May 13 Members of the banned Falun Gong sect defiantly celebrated their spiritual movement's eighth birthday today in Tiananmen Square as police beat followers, knocking them and their yellow banners and flowers to the ground. Police punched and kicked five women who tried to unfurl a banner. The beating continued even after they were forced into a police van. Plainclothes security officers pushed down another woman standing amid 10 followers raising banners. One read "Truthfulness, Benevolence, Forbearance," Falun Gong's motto. A half-dozen followers raised yellow chrysanthemums. Police hustled them away, leaving the flowers scattered on the square's gray paving stones. A street sweeping truck was sent in to clean away the protest's remains. At least 50 people were taken away by police after staging scattered acts of civil disobedience across the vast square in central Beijing. Chinese and foreign tourists, who come to the square by the thousands every day, gawked at the outbursts and the frenzied police response.á

(May 11, Reuters) ...Reports also indicate that two Western tourists were arrested for taking pictures of the arrests, and at least three foreign journalists had their film confiscated.

Category: Falun Dafa in the Media