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China Crisis News Bulletin #43

May 26, 2000 |  
Monitoring News of the Persecution of Falun Gong
US FALUN DAFA INFORMATION CENTER - Contacts: Gail Rachlin 212-501-8080, Erping Zhang 917-679-6944, Feng Yuan 917-734-6913, or Levi Browde 914-720-0963. Email: usinfo@falundafa.org

BEIJING HAILS U.S. TRADE VOTE, CALLS HUMAN RIGHTS CLAUSE "INTERFERENCE"
(CNN) 05/25/00 - Beijing's leadership Thursday praised the U.S. House of Representatives' "wise" decision granting China permanent normal trade relations, but denounced a provision in the bill establishing a commission to monitor human rights in China. On Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 237-197 to grant China permanent trade status. But the human rights clause, China's leaders said Thursday, would allow the United States to meddle in China's internal affairs. They said they would not appreciate such interference. "China pays close attention to, and expresses strong dissatisfaction with, this act, and reserves the right to react on the issue in the future," Chinese Trade Ministry spokesman Hu Chusheng said.

HAS HUMAN RIGHTS TAKEN A BACK SEAT TO TRADE AND INVESTMENTS?
(Universal Press Syndicate, Comment from Georgie Ann Geyer) WASHINGTON - "The anti-WTO forces in America who are complaining that China's human rights record is growing worse and worse are, unfortunately, all too right in their analysis. Beijing's behavior becomes more and more abominable. The country's leaders are even so frightened by the unarmed, quasi-religious meditation sect of Falun Gong (because of the communist certainty that any alternative source of commitment must be destroyed) that it is carting away the sect's adherents all over the country as they appear in the morning air doing their mysterious exercises. On all levels, human rights conditions in China have actually deteriorated to a marked extent, particularly since President Clinton's 'friendship' journey to China in l998. And the same syndrome plays itself out these days under Chinese rule in Hong Kong, where press freedom and the rule of law have been steadily eroding. Nor does the future look much better. Despite the over-rosy prediction by U.S. companies in China, the fact is that the vast majority of these supposed hard-headed businessmen are still not making a cent in that 'vast' market (which doesn't stop them from performing obediently here as Beijing's loyal lobby)."

MORE DEATHS IN CHINA: WERE THEY "SUICIDE" OR MURDER?
Many media outlets carried this report without any independent investigation or apparent awareness that Falun Gong teachings that specifically discourage suicides by practitioners.

(AP) 05/23/00 - A Falun Gong member who was detained by police in northwestern China committed suicide by jumping from a building, a human rights group said Tuesday. Yao Baorong, 52, jumped from the fifth floor of a police station in Lanzhou, capital of Gansu province, during interrogation Saturday, according to the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy. She died at a hospital, it said. Yao had been detained several times for refusing to renounce her beliefs in the banned spiritual movement, the center said. Officials at the Anning branch of the Lanzhou police, where Yao was reportedly detained Saturday, declined comment. Police and officials with the Anning district's law-and-order committee confirmed her death, the center said. .

(AP) 5/19/00 - Beijing: A former head of a local militia and follower of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement has died in a Chinese police detention center after refusing food and water for eight days, a human rights group reported Friday. Zhou Zhichang, 45, died May 6 in the Shuangcheng No. 1 prison in Northeastern Heilongjiang province, the Hong Kong-based Information Center of Human Rights and Democracy said. He had been imprisoned there since he was arrested in Beijing in September for attempting to protest against the government ban, it said. Officials at the prison refused comment.

ARE NEWS COMPANIES REPORTING OR SURPRESSING NEWS FROM CHINA?
As the American Congress debates trade relations with China, there are concerns that economic interests are also affecting news from the mainland. Béatrice Turpin worked for Associated Press Television in Beijing before being fired for being too zealous in her coverage of activities considered oppositional. She bravely blows the whistle on working within a repressive political environment and a hostile corporate culture: full story on http://www.clearwisdom.net, or contact us for a copy.
US FALUN DAFA INFORMATION CENTER - Contacts: Gail Rachlin 212-501-8080, Erping Zhang 917-679-6944, Feng Yuan 917-734-6913, or Levi Browde 914-720-0963. Email: usinfo@falundafa.org
Category: Personal Accounts of Persecution