Hour [Montreal]: Great net of China

June 2001

The situation of 35-year-old Concordia student Ying Zhu and millions of other Falun Gong supporters has taken a sudden turn for the worse.

On Sunday, Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency, announced a further hardening on the crackdown of the meditation group that the Chinese government views as [Chinese government's slanderous terms omitted].

Also known as Falun Dafa, Falun Gong is a meditation and exercise routine, loosely based on [...] Qi Gong techniques, practised by millions of people in over 40 countries but severely persecuted in China.

At least 216 Falun Gong practitioners are thought to have died in police custody so far, often due to torture. Under the new regulations, that grim toll could mount considerably and quickly.

Chinese courts may now prosecute and apply the death penalty to Falun Gong practitioners "for organizing, encouraging or helping fellow followers commit suicide or injure themselves." This is designed to prevent incidents such as the group suicide attempt in January by five people who set themselves on fire in Tiananmen Square. China maintains the five - two of whom died - were Falun Gong adherents, a claim the group disputes.

(There is also mounting suspicion in international human-rights circles that they may not have been suicide attempts either.)

The new directives target Falun Gong practitioners for distributing pamphlets and information about the group. Followers can now be prosecuted as "subversives" if they produce or distribute materials deemed antigovernment.

Public manifestations by Falun Gong practitioners may have fallen off in recent months - probably because so many have been detained in jails, labour camps and psychiatric hospitals throughout China - but followers continue to frustrate officials by scrawling graffiti, surreptitious pamphleteering and posting on the internet the names and phone numbers of police and prison officials suspected of beating and killing detained practitioners.

Montreal university student Ying Zhu, described as being "very close" to obtaining Canadian citizenship, disappeared May 10 during a trip to visit her parents in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong. Prior to that, Ms Zhu had participated in a Falun Gong demonstration in Hong Kong where the crackdown against the movement is less draconian than in mainland China.

The Hong Kong Human Rights Information Centre confirms that she is being held by Chinese authorities for her Falun Gong activities.

The number of Falun Gong practitioners in Chinese custody is as difficult to ascertain as their number of actual followers. The Chinese government says there are two million, but from his U.S. exile, founder and leader Master Li Hongzhai claims a global following of over 100 million.

"Regardless of numbers, we know that Falun Gong is experiencing a huge crackdown, perhaps in the tens of thousands," says Alex Neve of Amnesty International. "Even that may be too cautious and conservative a number. Anyone committed to Falun Gong is at serious risk.

"We also know that there has been widespread torture and quite a number have died as a direct result," he adds. "Two hundred is only a cautious estimate."

From the moment she was first taken into custody at the Guangdong train station by officials of Office 610 - the Chinese government's special security force created to carry out the Falun Gong crackdown - Ying Zhu's whereabouts have been a mystery.

Wherever she is, friends in Montreal and Falun Gong supporters around the world want her to know that she's not alone. They are mounting vigils and protests at Chinese embassies and consular offices on her behalf.

One friend is fellow Montrealer and Falun Gong supporter Yumin Yang. "Her physical danger may not be that much at this precise moment," he said, "but her mental state is of very grave concern. They had absolutely no reason to arrest her in the first place so we now suspect they will try to squeeze a reason out of her."

World outrage at the persecution of Falun Gong may prevent her from being physically tortured, he said, but Chinese authorities will use psychological torture instead to justify her arrest.

"It has already begun. Her husband is still not allowed to see her; though he's made many requests, authorities have refused all access to her. The only thing we can do is appeal for public support," he said. "We have no other means."

Montrealers can sign petitions of support and learn more about the plight of Ying Zhu and Falun Gong followers in Chinatown where volunteers are available most afternoons in the small park located at the corner of La Gaucheti re and Parc avenue.

http://www.hour.ca/magazine/index.asp?id=768&parution=924